


The Innocence of Youth

by Ice_Queen_96



Category: Transformers - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-18
Updated: 2016-11-21
Packaged: 2018-07-15 18:08:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7233160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_Queen_96/pseuds/Ice_Queen_96
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A raid in the gladiator pits changes things on the home front for the Autobots</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Raid

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so I'm giving this a try. They always said writing is good for stress! Hopefully this won't stink too bad and fingers crossed I get better as time goes on :)
> 
> I don't own, blah blah blah
> 
> I never realized how hard it is to come up with OC names so yeah, they suck :/

The past 3 orns had been hard on them all. While all out civil war had yet to be declared, the signs were all pointing to this inevitable conclusion. There were too many who were angry at the select few with power. Not even one vorn ago, the gladiator Megatron had assassinated Sentinel Prime and Optimus had been chosen to take his place. Some were starting to align themselves with one side or the other while other areas, like Praxus, were doing all they could to remain neutral in the coming conflict. In a bid to try and cut off some of Megatron’s power, the Autobots had been conducting raids on Decepticon bases and supply points. In some cases, this involved attacking the very rings that Megatron used to jump to power. Not only would he use these venues as a means of entertainment for his troops, he also found they were a way to find and train new recruits. However, it had been determined through Special Op missions that not all of the participants were there of their own free will. Instead, they were taken from the back streets and alleys, forced to entertain the troops with their bodies or with their lives. Because of this, it was determined that the rings needed to be shut down.  


All of this lead to where they now were. The latest ring taken down had been run by a hard pit boss known as Smasher. According to intel from Jazz, the SIC of Special Ops, it also appeared he had some ties with the mad genius Shockwave. In the end, they were successful in offlining Smasher and saving many of the slaves. Optimus had been reading the reports from his various department heads regarding the final outcomes. Well, all except for one. He had yet to get CMO Ratchet’s report. Not to say he didn’t know the medical tallies. The medics under Ratchet had filed their repair logs so Optimus knew who was still in medical recovering, who had been treated and released, and unfortunately, those who had been lost However, Ratchet had not been seen in the three orns since the raid. The last anyone had seen of him, he was yelling for someone to get Wheeljack and Perceptor to ICU 1 and to make it quick. While Wheeljack wasn’t an unusual choice; the two were old friends from academy days and Wheeljack was a more than competent assistant, it was Perceptor that threw him off. He was relatively new to the Autobots, quite young and a recent gradate from the recently destroyed Science Academy where he studied and worked in multiple fields. He couldn’t think of a reason that Ratchet would demand the presence of a mech he barely knew and had not worked with in the past  


Ironhide had told him that they had found a couple of mechs deep in the bowels of the arena during this raid, one was dark blue while the other mostly black with some gray and red highlights. Both were reported to be fairly new to the rings by Jazz but extremely vicious. They had no official names that Jazz could find, the announcer would just refer to them as the Destroyers. Following Optimus’s directive to save as many of the slaves as possible, they had been taken down after a long fight and a couple of EMP blasts. Thankfully, they had been unarmed during the fight, but yet, were still responsible for five of the mechs currently residing in medical. They had been brought in for triage and examined by Ratchet and this is when the strange behavior began. After completing a few scans, then some additional scans, Ratchet began swearing, ordered the two be moved into ICU 1, and sent out the order for Wheeljack and Perceptor. Of course, soldiers being soldiers, the rumor mill started shortly thereafter. However, it didn’t kick into high gear until someone spied Wheeljack coming from his lab with what appeared to be two small frames about twelve joors after Ratchet’s sequestration began. Optimus nearly spat out his morning energon ration when he heard some of the minis say it was because the two fighters were obviously femmes in disguise and had been carrying.  


Finally, after three orns, Optimus and the rest of his officers received a comm from Ratchet to come to the Officer Conference Room in a joor. Leaving his office, he was joined by Ironhide and they made their way down to the room.  


“What do you think old Ratch wants to talk to us about?” Ironhide asked as they neared the door.  


“I have no idea old friend,” Optimus replied. “I’m hoping we finally have some answers to what has been going on the past few orns. Though I will be sad to no longer hear any of the theories in the break room. They have been a nice distraction since the raid”.  


Ironhide laughed and then made his way to his seat. Also in the room was Nightshade, Optimus’s SIC and the head of Special Ops and Road Gear, the head of the Tactical Department and TIC. Ratchet was the last to enter and he looked as if he hadn’t slept the entire time he was locked away. He slumped into his chair, leaned his head back, and let out a long exvent.  


“I’m sure you are wondering why I’ve called you down here on short notice,” Ratchet said once he had everyone’s attention.  


“The thought has crossed my mind several times since you locked yourself away,”, Road Gear replied.  


“Personally, I think you should have recharged for a few joors before meeting with us,” Nightshade said. “Sorry my mech but you look like slag.”  


Ironhide stifled a laugh and received a glare from Ratchet.  


“You are just lucky that I’m too damn tired to throw something at you Hide,” Ratchet said with less bite than usual. “I have some bad news regarding the Decepticons and felt it best to let you know as soon as it was safe to do so.”  


“Please let us know what you have discovered Ratchet,” as Optimus gestured for him to continue.  


“It appears in order to bolster his troops, Megatron has turned Shockwave loose to create the ultimate soldiers for his army."  


“So is that why we found those two so far underground?” Ironhide asked.  


“Yes, the two found in the lab were no ordinary soldiers,” Ratchet replied.  


“How are they different?” Road Gear asked as he began brainstorming new scenarios.  


“Let's just say this new development is low, even for Shockwave”.  


“How so, Ratchet?"  


Ratchet sat quietly for a few breems, drumming his fingers on the table as if he was struggling to try to figure out what he wanted to say. This was very concerning for Optimus as he knew Ratchet was one to never mince or be at a loss for words. Finally, his chair scraped backwards as he stood and turned for the door.  


“Perhaps it would be easier if I just showed you.”  


Several eye ridges raised at this but all of the occupants rose and followed Ratchet to the medical ward.  


The doors to medical whisked open as the group made their way in. The group noted Perceptor was crashed on a berth in the corner, dead to those around him, with one arm hanging off the side and a blanket tangled up in his peds. Ratchet went over, straightened the blanket, and pulled it up to Perceptor’s shoulders.  


“Poor kid, this is the first time he’s really been able to shut down since this began,” Ratchet murmured as he dimmed the lights in this area.  


Patch was the medic on duty and raised his arm in greeting from the other side of the ward where he was doing rounds. Responding with the same gesture Ratchet then turned and led the party back towards the ICU area. Entering his ID code, the doors opened to admit the party. Ratchet led them past the doors to ICU 1 and continued down the hall to the last room on the right. He sighed and then pushed the button to allow admittance.  


The party stopped with collective gasps and wide optics at the sight in the room. Wheeljack was sitting on the med berth but that wasn’t the shocking part. It was the two younglings, one yellow with helm fins and the other red with audio horns, curled up on either side of him.  


“The Decepticons and Shockwave appear to be forcing upgrades on younglings to create Megaton’s super soldiers…."


	2. Twins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The officers get an introduction to the twins.

Chapter 2 – Twins  


“Ratchet, are those younglings?” Nightshade asked as he started to step forward and then hesitated, afraid of waking them up.  


“Yes,” Ratchet replied, “and nowhere near old enough to be upgraded into adult frames.”  


“There is also something else about them that you have not told us about yet,” Optimus said as he quietly crept closer to the two sleeping frames.  


The others looked at him while Wheeljack just smiled.  


“Yep, these two are split spark twins,” Wheeljack said as he moved one of his hands to allow Optimus to stroke the yellow one’s helm. "Figured the matrix would alert you to that bit."  


“Wait split sparks!” Ironhide gasped as he turned wide eyed towards Ratchet. “Where did they come from?”  


“I’m not sure, split sparks are so rare, this is the first pair I’ve ever seen. Most are abandoned at birth and perish shortly thereafter. Too many still believe in the negative stigma and beliefs regarding twins. How these two made it this long is a miracle,” Ratchet explained.  


“And no idea how they came into Decepticon hands?” Optimus asked.  


“None and they haven’t really opened up yet to tell us, “Wheeljack shook his head.  


Road Gear turned towards Ratchet, “I assume this is what caused the rush in the ward after the raid?”  


“Yep, thought the scanner was broken as there was no way frames that big should have had sparks that young." Ratchet leaned against the counter in the room. “Secondary scans confirmed there was something wrong with the sparks powering those frames."  


Ratchet and Wheeljack went on to explain how they had removed the spark casings from the adult frames after they been stabilized. The twins’ sparks had not only been stressed from trying to power frames much larger than they were meant to handle but also from injuries suffered during fights and training. Wheeljack was able to create proper sized frames for the sparks while Perceptor and Ratchet handled most of the fine tuning and programming. The twins had been online for almost an orn now but had been fairly quiet and withdrawn. Wheeljack mentioned that the yellow twin appeared to be more aggressive and very protective of his red counterpart. The red twin, however, appeared to be very curious, taking in his surroundings.  


As the adults continued talking about the situation at hand, Wheeljack felt some fidgeting beside him.  


“Looks like we’ve got some company.”  


The others turned towards the berth to see two sets of blue optics come online. The yellow twin tensed, plating tightening and a small growl coming from his frame. The red twin, on the other hand, just cocked his head and stared at the others. He appeared cautious but not aggressive.  


“Hello boys, how are you feeling?” Ratchet said as he made his way over to the berth.  


The twins looked over before the red one responded “Ok, I guess. Who are they?”  


“These are our friends; they won’t hurt you.” Wheeljack gave a comforting hug to the both of them.  


The yellow one was fixated on Ironhide and his arm cannon while the red one looked around at the others in the room and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m Sideswipe, he’s Sunstreaker.”  


The yellow twin glared at his brother, how DARE he say his name to these strangers. How did he know they weren’t going to experiment on them like the last mechs they met in a med bay!?  


“Sunstreaker here is a quiet one,” Wheeljack said as Sideswipe made his way towards the end of the berth towards Ratchet. The fearsome glare then switched to Wheeljack.  


“Sunny’s just being a grouch.” Sideswipe reached out towards Ratchet so he would pick him up  


“Don’t call me Sunny, it's SUNSTREAKER!”  


“Ha, got you to talk!”  


“You’re a moron Sideswipe,” Sunstreaker said quietly as he curled back into Wheeljack’s side.  


“Where’s Percep…Pacept…grrr, where’s Percy at Ratchet?” Sideswipe asked as he settled himself into Ratchet’s hold.  


“He’s sleeping; he’s been up with you guys since you came online.” The little head nodded in response.  


Ironhide made a move towards the red twin. Although very gruff, somewhat loud, and could give Ratchet a run for his money in cursing, he had always had a soft spot for sparklings and younglings. Since the fighting began, most had been shipped to neutral colonies or cities for their protection.  


Optimus saw the yellow twin tense “Ironhide…….”  


In the next moment, Sunstreaker had shot out from Wheeljack’s grip and had flown to the end of the berth ready to attack and defend his brother. While no longer in the larger frames, both twins still had some fighting programming that couldn’t be purged and given the right circumstances, and with the right grip on the wrong energon line, could be dangerous.  


Everyone froze as Sunstreaker perched at the end of the berth. Sideswipe clicked at his twin to try and calm him down but with little success. Sunstreaker was turning into a little ticking time bomb. He looked around the room at these strange mechs. He trusted Ratchet and Wheeljack, even that one Sideswipe called Percy. However, he didn’t know these strangers, how did he know they wouldn’t hurt his brother or Ratchet. Sure, Wheeljack said they were their friends but the one mech that took them to the rings, he said he wanted to be their friend and look what happened to them!  


He continued to glare at the other mechs in the room. Two of them had backed away towards the door in an attempt to be less threatening. He shifted his gaze to the large blue and red mech. His size was intimidating but for some reason, he felt as if this mech wasn’t a threat. There was a calming field coming from him and Sunstreaker felt he wasn’t an immediate danger. He turned his gaze towards the large red mech with the cannon. He knew that type, they were warriors and he knew what a warrior could do to Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Sideswipe.  


Optimus started to shift towards Ironhide but the red mech held up a hand to stop him. “Hold on Prime. Let me do this. He sees me as the threat right now.”  


He slowly moved his arm towards his cannon. With slow, sure movements, a hiss-click was heard as the cannon disengaged and was slowly lowered towards the floor. Sunstreaker watched the cannon be lowered and pushed away. However, Ironhide didn’t raise from his kneeling position. Instead, he continued to lower himself until he was eye to eye with the youngling. He slowed his vents to calm himself, and then slowly expanded his field towards the berth.  


Sunstreaker’s field jumped back at the first encounter with Ironhide’s. Sideswiped whined for his brother off to the side, trying to send calming pulses to his twin. Slowly, Ironhide pressed forward with his field once more, trying to convey protection and safety. He knew the yellow twin wasn’t angry or glitched, he was scared. Primus only knows what those maniacs had done to them.  


Finally, after several breems, Sunstreaker’s positioning and plating relaxed some. “You promise you won’t hurt us?”  


“I promise little mech, I won’t hurt you or your brother.”  


Sunstreaker relaxed a little more. “What about them?” as he nodded towards Nightshade and Road Gear.  


“They won’t hurt you either.” Ironhide had noticed that so far Sunstreaker hadn’t mentioned Optimus. Thank Primus for the Matrix!  


“And how do I know no one out there will hurt us?” Sunstreaker gestured towards the door, obviously meaning those outside the room.  


“Because if they do, I will personally make sure they regret it little one.”  


Sunstreaker ponded this for a few seconds before sitting on the end of the berth, within arm’s reach of his brother, and nodded his head. His field relaxed and the tension in the room began to dissipate. Ironhide rose slowly to his peds and walked towards the yellow twin. He held his hand out above Sunstreaker’s helm and the youngling leaned into it, seeking comfort.  


“They have obviously been traumatized by whatever happened,” Ratchet said quietly, continuing to hold onto Sideswipe as his trembling began to ease. “I think it best that they meet with Smokescreen once they are ready to leave med bay.”  


“We will need to make accommodations ready for them,” Optimus pondered. “They will need a guardian as well. I think we can prepare some quarters in the officer barracks, that way they can have a room to themselves but there will also be a place for their guardian to stay so he would be close by.”  


“How would be go about choosing a guardian for them?” Road Gear asked. “Unfortunately, with the fighting increasing, it will be difficult for one mech to be responsible for twins, as well as, their normal duties.”  


“He’s got a point,” Nightshade sighed. “It’s not safe to send them to a neutral area. Evidence already shows that Shockwave has an interest in them. While not ideal being on a military base, they are the safest here.”  


Both twins flinched at Shockwave’s name. Feeling this, both Ratchet and Ironhide vowed to make the one-eyed scientist pay for what he did to the twins.  


“Well, it’s obvious that they are most comfortable with Ratchet and Ironhide,” Wheeljack said with a smile. “Eh eh eh, don’t deny it you two, they like Percy and me well enough but they are attached to you two at the moment. I hope you don’t turn out to be bad influences on them!”  


Sideswipe giggled and Sunstreaker cracked the smallest of smiles while Ironhide and Ratchet just looked at each other. Sighs left both frames.  


“I’m game if you are Ratchet.”  


“Sure, why not. They can’t be any worse than the lot of you.”  


“Well, it appears to be settled then,” Optimus said. “I will make the necessary arrangements and let you know which quarters will be used for the twins.”  


Their attention was turned to a noise in the corner. Road Gear had a finger to his mouth and appeared to be in deep thought. “I feel it would be wise to have someone from Special Ops on the care team as well. While it would be pulling someone from the field, I feel that their addition would be beneficial in case the Decepticons make a move to get them back.”  


“Your point is valid Road Gear. Nightshade, what are your thoughts and recommendations?” Optimus turned towards his SIC.  


“I agree,” he said after a moment. “While I have no doubt of Ironhide’s fighting ability or frag (*followed by several hissed out LANGUAGE*), Ratchet’s wrench throwing ability, it might be best to have someone on the team who wouldn’t mind getting their hands dirty if need be.”  


“Who would you recommend?”  


“I would say Jazz if you would permit me to reassign him Optimus,” Nightshade replied. “Not only is he my SIC, let’s face it, he’s like the unofficial morale office of the base. He’s also been great with the younglings we’ve come across in the past. I can reassign him to the twins, almost like a personal bodyguard. He can be with them while Ratchet and Ironhide are on duty and then go on stand-by when their shifts are done.”  


Seeing the others nod their head, Optimus agreed with Nightshade, on the condition that the twins were able to feel secure with Jazz. They didn’t need any repeats of the earlier incident. While everyone agreed that it was conditional on the twins accepting Jazz, personally, Optimus felt that there was nothing to worry about. It was very hard to not like Jazz.  


As the meeting concluded, Wheeljack moved off of the berth while Ratchet settled Sideswipe back down. It was obvious the twins were worn out by the events so far and the extra recharge would help them heal faster from their procedures as well. Once Sideswipe was situated, Sunstreaker crawled back down to his twin and they curled around each other like cybercats. Wheeljack pulled a blanket over them and murmured that he would just be outside if they needed him. Ratchet dimmed the lights and all of the adults left the room to allow the twins to rest and to make the arrangements to get the twins out of med bay and into their own quarters with their new guardians and bodyguard.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Famous last words Ratchet, famous last words.......


	3. Why Ratchet Drinks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a day in the life on the Autobot base. With twins. And Jazz. And glitter.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've seen these time descriptions used in other fan fics so just in case you were wondering
> 
> Breem - Minute  
> Joor - Hour  
> Orn - Day  
> Decaorn - Cybertronian equivalent to our week  
> Groon - Month  
> Vorn - Year

It didn’t take long to make preparations to move the twins out of med bay and into their own quarters. A suitable set of rooms had been found on the officer floor and were made ready within one orn. There were two rooms connected by a private shower, the one in the front to be used by whomever would be with the twins at that time. The one in the back was set up for the twins to use.  


They had been in their own place for a couple of decaorns now and while there was still some anxiety around new mechs, the twins were starting to relax around the other soldiers. Of course, it also helped when you were accompanied by a walking cannon, an assassin, or a mad medic with mean wrench throwing skills. It was also during this time that each twin’s unique gifts and personality quirks started to show.  
While there were similarities noted, Ratchet was more interested in how they were different. In some ways, they appeared to be almost complete opposites and he wasn’t sure if this was just their own individual personality styles or if being a split spark twin had something to do with it.  


Sunstreaker was the quieter of the two, he generally conveyed what he wanted to say in as few words as possible and most of his communications appeared to be through gestures, growls, mumbles, or glares. He was also a very abstract thinker. Some old data pads had been found for the twins to use and Ironhide caught Sunstreaker creating art on his. While a little rough around the edges, it was apparent that the youngling had quite the artistic talent that would only grow with time. He had an eye for detail and color and was often able to re-create scenes just from a description.  


Sideswipe, in contrast, was the more analytical and outgoing twin. He enjoyed being social with the others when their guardians took them to the rec room. While Sunstreaker tended to sit in the corner and take in the situation, Sideswipe was often found mingling at the other tables. He also had an eye for numbers and calculations. Ironhide brought home his requisition sheets after a shift one night only to wake up the next morning to find Sideswipe analyzing the numbers and making supply recommendations. He also had a good eye for tactical exercises. While he didn’t exactly have the patience (ha, what’s that!) of his brother to be able to create a long term strategy in the battle simulator games, he was able to note minute details in order to create short term plans. On his own, he would be easily defeated on the simulator games. However, with someone a little more seasoned (and patient) to direct him, he was a force to be reckoned with.  


Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue as younglings were known to play simulator games. With Wheeljack around, the twins always had a new game or gadget to try out (after being thoroughly tested for not going boom-ness). However, most younglings didn’t have Jazz as a bodyguard. Now you may be asking, what’s wrong with Jazz. He’s responsible or he wouldn’t have been made SIC of Special Ops. He’s popular - the other soldiers see him as the unofficial morale officer. The problem with Jazz is that he’s just a bad influence.  


Just as Optimus figured, the twins took to Jazz right away and spent almost every orn with them. They enjoyed hearing his tales of subterfuge and sabotage and he was generally just fun to be around. Soon, the twins were participating in “Special Ops Exercises”, such as return the cubes to the disposal area without being seen and rearrange Ratchet’s office without being caught. Naturally, this progressed to pranking. Sideswipe had always loved a good prank and he saw in Jazz a mentor who could only help him master his skills. Jazz, of course, was more than willing to pass on the “traditions and practices” that had been passed down multiple generations (or not) of his family. Sunstreaker wasn’t as interested in the craft as his brother, but that didn’t mean he didn’t mind watching the end results or helping out when he could. Especially when the targets were some annoying mini-bots and ESPECIALLY when the target happened to be a really annoying red mini-bot named Cliffjumper.  


One night, Optimus decided to visit the twins’ quarters before turning in for the night. The orn had been a strange one. First, it began with complaints that the energon dispensers in the rec room kept playing a ditty from an old commercial he recalled as a child. He was still attempting to purge the song from his systems. Next, the showers dispensed glitter and foam instead of cleanser, resulting in Blaster piping in some dance music and mechs throwing an impromptu rave. Red Alert went into histrionics at the security risk this created and it took some creativity on the part of Inferno to get him back to the security suite by indicating that no one was watching the cameras currently. Finally, it had taken two joors to get Cliffjumper down from the shooting range ceiling where he had somehow been anchored using powerful magnets that activated when he stepped up to his booth for target practice. Optimus sighed and knocked on the door; a few seconds later, the door to the hab suite opened up. He looked inside to see Ironhide sprawled on the couch with the twins curled up on top of him, all three dead to the world in recharge. Since Ironhide was snoring, Optimus decided to make a quick recording, it was to one’s benefit to have some sort of blackmail available when it came to the weapons specialist. Ratchet on the other hand, was slumped in the recliner, a flask of high grade on the arm rest and readily accessible.  


“Optimus”, Ratchet said quietly as he turned his head towards the Autobot leader.  


“Yes Ratchet.”  


“Now you know why I drink.”  


Optimus just nodded his head. He decided that the news of Smokescreen teaching the twins several card games in addition to handling their counseling services could wait until morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short one tonight, had some sadness at work today and needed a laugh. Hope it makes you laugh too :)


	4. Praxus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reprieves are only short when one is engaged in war.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap, I think I now know what other writer's mean when they say a chapter just took off on them!
> 
> And because I forgot to mention earlier, I don't own Transformers, if I did, I'd be a hell of a lot better off!  
> And I hope I haven't taken over any OCs, its hard coming up with names at times!

Chapter 4 – Praxus  
It had been a couple of groons since the twins first came to the base and they were pretty at ease with most of the officers and with the Special Ops team. They also spent a lot of time in the rec room interacting with the others or watching programming on the vid screen. Unfortunately, things had been rather quiet and subdued for the past decaorn or so and they haven’t been able to spend as much time around Ironhide and Jazz. This was because the City of Vos had been attacked and the Seekers, under the direction of their Winglord Starscream, ended up allying themselves with the Decepticons. Because of this, many of the officers and specialists had been working double shifts, not only to try and figure out who attacked Vos but also try and figure out what this meant for the Autobots. The fighting had been worsening prior to the attack but the joining of the Seekers to the Decepticons had been a low blow to the Autobot cause.  


This night, there was a small card game going on that the twins were sitting in on. Sunstreaker, as usual, was sketching the scene while Sideswipe and Jazz had teamed up to win a few Shanix. They had been joined by Smokescreen, Trailblazer, Cliffjumper, and Hound. Thankfully, things had started to relax some and the mechs were enjoying the short reprieve.  


“So Jazz, been down to see the Hatchet yet?” Hound asked as he motioned Smokescreen for two cards and then got a glint in his eye. While he was an excellent tracker, he had a horrible poker face.  


Sideswipe giggled at Ratchet’s nickname while motioning for one card. “Ya, released me a couple a joors ago. He was just happy I didn’t come back all slagged t’ the pit for once.”  


“Just as long as it gives us something to work on – I’ll raise,” Smokescreen said as he took a sip of his high grade. “Road Gear has been driving us nuts in tactical running simulations!”  


“Then he has us scrap those findings and run them again. I’m sick of sims, I swear, I’m doing them in my sleep!” Trailbreaker threw two chips onto the growing pile.  


“Um, Breaker buddy, you are doing them in your sleep,” Hound laughed. “You’ve woken me up the past 3 night cycles going on about what you would like to do with those sims”.  


The group at the table started laughing which angered Sunstreaker because it caused the group to shift about some. Finally, Hound decided to call and those still in the game started showing their hands.  


“Well lookee here gentlemechs, Lords over Ladies,” Smokescreen laughed as he started reaching for the pot. While the others threw their cards down in disgust, Sideswipe noted that Smokescreen almost seemed like he was frozen, arms stopped halfway to the pot and eye staring blankly.  


“Smokey, you ok?” he asked quietly as he stood up in Jazz’s lap.  


The others at the table noticed the red twin leaning over the table, outstretched finger reaching towards Smokescreens face. Just short of touching him, Smokescreens optics lit up into a bright blue color before he fell to the floor, grabbing at his chest plates with a scream of extreme pain.  


Sideswipe yelped as Jazz boosted him quickly onto the table before dropping to the floor beside Smokescreen, trying to pull his hands away from his chest plates while Hound came down to help control his trashing and Trailbreaker commed Ratchet to get down to the rec room immediately.  


“Smokes, what’s wrong, what’s goin’ on!” Jazz was trying to calm him down as best he could but he kept trashing and muttering “they’re gone, they’re gone, they’re gone.”  


Ratchet had no more entered the room when the base klaxons started going off with overhead announcements of all department heads to the command center and for base units to report to their posts.  


“Go on you three, get going, I got him,” Ratchet said as he was finally able to inject a sedative into Smokescreen and he soon fell into a fitful slumber. “I’ll send a message to Road Gear about Smokey.”  


They watched as Ratchet scooped up Smokescreen’s unconscious body and started carrying him back towards the med bay. He paged Patch to go to command in his place, he had an emergency he had to tend to.  


“Boys, you’re with me!” he snapped at the twins. They looked at each other and then quickly caught up to Ratchet and kept pace with him.  


Soon they arrived at the med bay and while Ratchet got Smokescreen on a berth to try and figure out what happened, the twins went over to the corner and sat down so they would be out of the way. While they normally weren’t phased by the base alarms, this night, they found them upsetting. Of course, the episode in the rec room hadn’t helped their nerves any and the alarms going off shortly after Smokescreens collapse really did a number on them. After running tests for about half a joor, the only thing Ratchet found was some strain on Smokescreen’s spark. However, it wasn’t to a level that was life threatening. For the time being, he decided to feed a lighter dose of sedatives into an energon line and hooked it up to him. If anything, once he came to, the meds would help control the pain some and hopefully he would be able to provide some answers as to why he had his episode.  


“Ratchet?” he turned to see the twins behind him. They had apparently deemed it safe to approach him now that he was done with the tests on Smokescreen. Sunstreaker stepped forward, still holding onto his brother’s hand. “Is he going to be ok?”  


Ratchet bent down to pick both of the boys up and sat them on the berth next to Smokescreen. “Yeah, he’s going to be ok. Just wish I knew what happened?”.  


“He froze up,” Sideswipe said. “He just looked weird.”  


“What do you mean, weird?”  


“I don’t know, just weird, like he wasn’t there weird.”  


Drumming his fingers on his forearms, Ratchet turned towards the main computer to see if there was anything in the Praxian’s medical files that might explain the behaviors that Sideswipe saw. He made it about half-way there before the door hissed opened and admitted both Optimus and Ironhide. He noticed while the doors were open that although the alarm lights were still flashing, the sirens had at least been turned off.  


“How is he doing?” Optimus asked quietly as he headed towards the berth.  


“Resting comfortably but I can’t figure out what happened to him. Other than for a slight strain on his spark, he readings are perfectly normal. Sides said he froze shortly before his fit but I don’t remember anything in his records regarding seizures or similar activity.”  


Ironhide and Optimus just looked at each other before turning back to face the room. Finally, Optimus broke the med bay silence. “Ratchet, I need you to prepare for an emergency transit. Praxus is gone.”  
Ratchet choked on an invent. “What?! What do you mean gone?!?”  


“The cons attacked Praxus about 1 joor ago and they sent out a distress call for help,” Ironhide replied. “We’ve already sent specialized teams to push back any remaining Decepticon fighters but from the preliminary reports and images we’re getting; it appears that the amount of casualties will be massive.”  


“Wait, 1 joor ago? That’s when Smokey collapsed. You don’t think the myth of the Praxian bond is real?!”  


There was a myth that the Praxians were bonded to their city. The story was that thousands of vorns ago, the Lord of Praxus had received many suitors for the hand of his eldest daughter. However, she had no desire to leave the city she loved. It was said that prior to the night of her departure, she ran to the Crystal Gardens where she cried herself to exhaustion against the largest crystal. This crystal approached her in her dreams, telling her not to fear leaving her home as a part of Praxus would always be a part of her and of every future Praxian. They would never truly leave Praxus as it would always be a part of their spark. Ratchet had heard Smokescreen tell this story several times to the boys when he was trying to get them to settle down for the night. Sunstreaker had actually illustrated parts of the story and the drawings currently resided on the shelves in Smokey’s office. Could it be that when the city was destroyed, the part that lived in every Praxian’s spark was also destroyed???? Could the legend have been true????  
Snapping back to the present, Ratchet turned towards the twins. “What do we do about the boys? I can’t leave them here when we’re understaffed and Smokes isn’t in any capacity to care for them?”  
Optimus had to admit this was a difficult situation. Nothing like this had even been considered when the twins came to live on base. It wasn’t safe to have them near an active war zone but at the same time, they couldn’t be left here at base with a skeleton crew.  


“We’ll set up the hospital a safe distance from the city borders so the twins can stay with you,” Optimus decided.  


Ironhide and Ratchet agreed that the situation wasn’t ideal but they had little flexibility in the matter.  


“Alright boys, you understand, there’s gonna be no goofin around, no horseplay,” Ironhide said as he turned towards the twins. “I mean it.”  


The twins nodded their heads and took Ironhide’s hands as he helped them off the berth. “I’ll take these two back to the quarters to get a few things and meet you back here shortly. We’ll be leaving from hanger bay Alpha 1.”  


“Alright, let me get Patch briefed on Smokescreen’s situation and grab a few things from here.” Ratchet turned towards Optimus, “The supplies for the field hospitals are down in Storage Bay 1, I inventoried them last week and are ok to be loaded.”  


Optimus indicated he would see to the hospital supplies while Ironhide took the twins to get a few items to help occupy their time during the deployment. Ratchet had a short time to prepare and the sooner they could leave, the better for the victims in Praxus.  


*************************************  


The convoy had traveled during the overnight hours, permitting most of the travelers to sleep a few joors before the work began. It hadn’t taken long to get the tents set up for the field hospital and by mid-day, Ratchet had the facilities up and running. They had decided to set up on a hill about 3 clicks outside of the city. They were close enough that the injured could be transported quickly to the base but far enough away so that if any fighting broke out, the patients (and twins) would be kept safe. By some miracle, the twins had listened to Ratchet and Ironhide (for once) and were behaving themselves. Most of the day was spent sitting outside of the buildings, staring down the hill to the ruined city below. Other times, they ran errands for Ratchet. Their first night cycle was difficult, the camp was very quiet and the noises from the city; mechs searching, fires popping, and crystals shattering, kept them awake. Morning was met with Ratchet cursing up a storm. Apparently Smokescreen had snuck onto a transport from Iacon to Praxus and would be arriving shortly. Ironhide couldn’t blame him though. The mech was from Praxus, he still had family and friends in Praxus, and in all honesty, if the roles were reversed, Primus help the mechs who tried to keep him away from his home if it had been destroyed.  


The twins had been sitting in their normal spot outside of the medical facility when Ratchet marched up, dragging Smokescreen behind him and then pushing him to sit down beside them. “Keep an eye on him boys” he asked before said before marching back into the facilities.  


They looked at the dejected Praxian, obviously he’d been given an earful from Ratchet the moment his peds touched the ground and they knew Ratchet had been in a surly mood. He had expected to help more survivors but in reality, they were few and far between. In a city with hundreds of thousands of individuals, fewer than 200 had made their way to the medical facility, and most of those were residents who were out of Praxus at the time of the attack, only to return home to nothing but shock and loss. Without a word to each other, Sideswipe curled up in Smokescreen’s lap while Sunstreaker sat beside him, offering his support but obviously not cuddling (because he ‘didn’t cuddle’).  


They had been sitting for a couple of joors when Smokescreen’s head suddenly shot up and his doorwings started twitching. The twins jumped to their feet, trying to figure out what Smokey was doing. He turned back towards the medical tent, as if he was looking to see if anyone was watching, and then started down the hill. The twins looked at each other, not sure what to do.  


“Well Ratchet said to keep an eye on him,” Sideswipe said as he took off after him.  


“I don’t think this is what he meant Sides.” Sunstreaker shook his shoulders and then followed at a slower pace.  


They noticed that Smokescreen was sticking towards the outer rim of Praxus, unsure whether he had a particular goal in mind, was trying to avoid Autobot patrols, or a combination of both. They knew his doorwings had alerted him to their presence but so far, Smokescreen hadn’t said anything about his followers. They had been walking for about three-quarters of a joor when Smokescreen stopped and held a hand up to his helm. Someone had obviously noticed they were gone as he started arguing with whomever was on the other end of the comm. The twins started climbing some of the debris piles while in background, they heard Smokey say something about family and that he wasn’t going to sit around and do nothing. They had made it to the top of the rubble, about the height of two Ironhides and were surveying the destruction around them when something caught Sunstreaker’s eye.  


“Look over there,” he said pointing to a debris field across a crystal field. He believed that it had to have been a garden before the bombs destroyed it.  


“What?” his brother asked. “I don’t see anything.”  


“Just watch”. Sunstreaker and his brother scanned the distance and sure enough, a flash of light was seen once more. “See that, something’s moving over there. The crystals shouldn’t be causing that; it’s moving too much.”  


The twins hollered at Smokescreen and then made their way down the debris towards the sporadic flashing light. The closer they got, the more their training kicked in, seeking shelter behind piles of rubble and scanning the path for any dangers and threats. At the final pile before the area where they had been seeing the flashing light, they decided to arm themselves with items from the rubble, Sunstreaker grabbing a large rock and Sideswipe a metal pipe. Sure enough, they saw the light again coming from what appeared to be a cavity in the debris. With a nod towards each other, they made a yelling charge towards the source……..  


…….. and scaring several lifecycles from a young Praxian who looked to be no older than they were.  


“Please don’t hurt me I’ll leave you alone. It’s just we’ve been here for two orns and I haven’t seen anyone else and I don’t know how they are and my brother is hurt and I need to find help but I can’t find any enforcers….” Small doorwings were trembling and optics were wide and almost white in color from shock.  


Sunstreaker walked up to the fast talking Praxian and gave him a slap across the face. The Praxian took a large invent but stopped talking, the blue coloring slowly coming back into his eyes.  


“Um, a little slower please, we don’t speak racer,” Sideswipe said, taking in their find. He was slightly smaller than they were, mostly gray with red highlights. And small doorwings, very fast moving small doorwings.  


The youngling continued to breath hard, mouth moving several times as if he was trying to say something but nothing was coming out.  


“Where the FRAG are you two!” a voice shouted out. “Ratchet is going to use me to target practice if you don’t get your afts over here!”  


They saw Smokescreen come around a pile of debris and walk towards them.  


“Smokey” a small voice squeaked. They turned towards the small Praxian to see him take off running towards Smokescreen, yelling his name as he went.  


“Primus BLUE!” Smokescreen dropped to his knees and embraced the shaken youth. The twins ran over to hear Smokescreen murmur calming words to the trembling youth. Smokescreen then pushed Blue back arm’s length and gave him a quick once over. Other than for some abrasions, minor injuries, and most likely dehydration, the youngling looked fine for having survived a genocide.  


“Blue, where’s Prowl? Was he with you?” Smokey asked the youth in a calm voice, trying to keep him from panicking.  


“He can’t get out, I can’t get him out, the debris is too heavy, he’s been trapped there since the bombs fell….”  


“Ok, can you take me to him?”  


Blue nodded his head and took off towards the back end of the crystal field. Smokescreen grabbed the twins’ hands and took off after him. They hadn’t run far when they came to what appeared to have once been a dwelling.  


Smokescreen ran up to the pile and started moving what debris he could, hollering for this Prowl the whole time. The twins decided they couldn’t stand back and watch and came over to help, moving what rubble they could. They had been digging for several breems when Smokey motioned for them to stop.  


“Prowl?”  


A very quiet and weak, a response of “Smokey” was heard by all.  


Smokescreen broke into a wide grin, and whooped for joy. “Ratchet, I need extraction teams and transport for two injured at my coordinates,” he said as he transmitted his location through his comm.  


“If those boys have so much as a scratch on the, I swear I’ll reformat you,” Ratchet growled.  


“The twins are fine Ratchet, we have Survivors!”  


For one of the few times he could recall, Ratchet was stunned silent. Soon, there was a call over general comms reassigning Autobots towards their position, the Prime and Ironhide also en route.  
The youngling named Blue stepped next to the twins, unconsciously seeking the comfort their fields offered while Smokey got down on his knees, facing the opening where he had heard the reply.  
“I’m here cousin, help is on the way.”  


*******************************  


A full orn had passed since Smokescreen’s distress call and both rescued Praxians were resting comfortably. The youngling was named Bluestreak and, other than for some injuries to his hands, knees and doorwings, was ok and had been spending a lot of time with the twins and Jazz. The buried mech was his older brother Prowl, who had used his body to shield his younger brother when the building collapsed on top of them. While Prowl was trapped in the rubble, Bluestreak was able to wiggle his way out through some gaps in the debris to freedom. However, he was scared to venture too far from Prowl to try and find help and since their family compound was on the outskirts of the city, they were missed by Autobot search teams which had started in the city center and were working outwards. By taking off, the twins and Smokescreen had most likely saved their lives.  


It was also learned that the trio were members of one of the elite houses of Praxus and that they were cousins. While Smokescreen was restless (and owing a few gambling debts to some unsavory characters) and had headed out towards Iacon, Prowl was more settled and joined the Praxian Enforcers where he worked as a high level tactician due to the battle computer he was integrated with when he had his adult frame upgrade. Another difference was that while Smokey’s colors were brighter hues, Prowl’s were basic black and white, the only splash of color being his red chevron. He seemed somewhat emotionless but Bluestreak said that was because of his battle computer which tended to analyze most unfamiliar situations. Sideswipe wasn’t convinced.  


“I swear, it’s like he’s reading my mind. He knows what I’m going to do before I even do it!”  


Sunstreaker just rolled his eyes and continued his packing. It had been decided when no more survivors were found that it was best for Ratchet to close down his field hospital and return to base in Iacon where he could better treat those they had been able to save. Crews would remain behind to salvage anything they could and to care for the dead and so their well-guarded medical caravan made their way back with no more than 200 survivors and two new friends.  


And Sideswipe had met his pranking nemesis….


	5. Little Warriors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently younglings can be very surprising creatures.....

Chapter 5 – Little Warriors  
After returning from the ruins of Praxus, Ironhide and Ratchet met with Optimus and decided to have the twins given proper training in fighting and defense. While the still had some of the illegal gladiator programming that couldn’t be purged, it was also based on their prior frames. They needed to be able to use their proper frames appropriately to protect themselves. Sideswipe was excited as he said there were a few tricks from their gladiator days he’d love to try out in his current form. Then Ratchet discovered that these tricks involved leaping onto flyers and try to force them to the ground and that was vetoed very quickly. So much for jet judo…..

Prowl had decided to stay in Iacon and was going to join the tactical department on a full time basis once he received clearance to do so from Ratchet. He as mostly healed from his injuries but was still trying to adapt and integrate his many repairs which could easily fatigue him. His main focus in Praxus was on offensive maneuvering and with Smokescreen already working in that department as an analyst, it wasn’t hard to make the recommendation to Road Gear and get the assignment approved.

Since Prowl was staying, that meant Bluestreak would be staying as well. The twins were happy about this as they had grown fond of the little Praxian and were affectionately becoming known around base as the Trouble Trio. Prowl was also given accommodations on the officer floor as well due to being Bluestreak’s guardian with the deaths of their creators in Praxus. Since their rooms were just down the hall from each other, most of their free time was spent in one place or the other, playing games or watching holovids. 

Ironhide handled their weapons training while Jazz would help them with self-defense moves and hand to hand. They weren’t going to be shown anything too dangerous, just enough that they could protect themselves if necessary. 

It was after the 1st shift and most mechs were hanging out in the rec room, drinking their rations and catching up on the latest gossip. In the corner booth, Ratchet, Road Gear, and Optimus had joined Prowl and Smokescreen. Ironhide had the boys and Jazz was off on a mission. 

“I hear from Smokescreen you are quite eager to get to work in tactics,” Road Gear said to Prowl as he sipped from his cube. 

“I am. I am not used to remaining idle for periods of time. I hope to be asset to your department.”

Ratchet turned towards Prowl. “I want to know this. How is it you are younger than Smokey here but so much more mature.” Smokescreen inhaled some energon while Prowl stared at him wide-eyed as Optimus pounded on the back of the poor choking mech.

“I ask myself that on a regular basis.”

“Ah, you’re no fun Prowler,” Smokescreen said as he was finally able to clear his throat. He started laughing at Prow’s furrowed face. “He hates nicknames, drives him nuts.”

They continued their conversations, learning more about Prowl and his job with the enforcers and vice versa. Ratchet had his back to the door and didn’t hear it slide open to admit a slinking red figure. It crept slowly and quietly towards the table, eager to pounce on its prey. It was within striking distance when….

“Make that jump you little spawn of the pit and I will reformat you into a waste receptacle”. 

Tiny shoulders sagged in defeat. 

“Frag, I was so close!” Sideswipe huffed as he walked up to the table. 

“Um Ratchet, we need to have a talk about your language around the younglings,” Optimus chuckled. “It appears they may be picking up some of your negative habits.”

“Ironhide is just as guilty,” Ratchet huffed.

“Guilty of what?” They turned to see Ironhide come in with Sunstreaker and a more excited than normal Bluestreak.

“Never mind, just watch your language.”

Ironhide shrugged his shoulder and handed something to Bluestreak. “Go ahead, show them.”

Bluestreak ran up to the table and then bounced on his peds in excitement. “Guess what I did Prowl, I bet you’ll never be able to guess, Ironhide said he’s never seen anything like it!”

The youngling was obviously very happy and proud of whatever he did and when Prowl gestured for him to continue, Bluestreak slapped a stack of papers on the table. They were targets, multiple targets, with shots taking out the center of each target.

“Yep, never seen anything like it,” Ironhide said as he sat down at the table with them. “Thought I would have Crosshairs show them some of the firearms today, nothing too powerful, just basic blasters and small rifles. Your little Blue there is a prodigy when it comes to target shooting.” He rubbed the helm of the young gray mech whose doorwings fluttered with pride.

“I had no idea,” Prowl said as he shuffled through the stacks. “He’s never held a firearm before coming here. Our creators wouldn’t permit it due to his age and he never went on the hunts.”

“Only time I’ve seen him be quiet,” Sunstreaker said putting his sketch pad on the table. Sure enough, he had drawn Bluestreak and Ironhide in the booth at the firing range, Ironhide helping to adjust his grip, Bluestreak still and eager to learn.

“Well, I think this calls for a toast,” Smokescreen said as he got up from the table to get some energon for the new arrivals. 

Sideswipe in the meantime has scrambled onto Optimus’s lap and was facing everyone at the table while Ironhide. “So Ratchet, how did you know I was behind you?”

“Magical Medic Powers.”

“Nu-uh.”

“Ya-huh,” Sunstreaker replied. “How do you think he manages to wing those wrenches like he does.”

“Magical Medic Powers can’t detect killer ninja skills,” Sideswipe retorted. “I’ve see Jazz sneak up on his all of the time!”

Ratchet flinched, ah good ole Jazz. Definitely was going to have to have a talk with that bot when he came in for his post-mission check. Seeing that an argument was about to break out between the twins, he caved. “Alright, fine, not Magical Medic Powers. I saw Prowl’s doorwings there start reacting. They detected you the minute you came in the door and started sneaking our way.”

“Wait, your doorwings are that sensitive?” Road Gear exclaimed. “I’ve never see doorwings that could do that before, at least not at that distance.”

“With my battle computer, I had a sensor net upgrade to increase its efficiency,” Prowl exclaimed. “The increased processing power permits me to process multiple stimuli at once without overloading my system.”

“In other words, something that is a slagging pain in the aft,” Ratchet said. “That’s part of the reason it took so long for him to integrate the new repairs. Slagging specialized doorwings!”  
“Language Ratchet,” Optimus chuckled. 

Smokescreen returned with the energon and the conversations continued. Sideswipe however, had a new objective. One he would see to in the next few orns. 

*********************  
“Hey little mech, what’s hanging?” Jazz said as Sideswipe came up to him after his post-mission exam with Ratchet. “Heard ol’ Hide had you shootin th’ otha day.”

“Yep, Bluestreak is really good too.” Sideswipe fidgeted, watching where Ratchet was. He didn’t want his plan to be ruined.

“What’s wrong, Cyber cat got your tongue?”

Sideswipe grabbed Jazz’s hand and led him out of the med-bay and started walking down the hall towards the training room. They walked in the door to see Sunstreaker sparring with Ironhide and holding his own despite his size disadvantage. “I need your help with something.”

“Nothing illegal I hope.”

“Nope, at least I don’t think it is. I need your help evading doorwings, very sensitive doorwings.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Little late getting this up. Have been down sick but starting to feel better. Also got a new computer chair and its oh so comfy :)


	6. Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you can't catch a break

The war had not been going well in recent groons. The Decepticons had been targeting Iacon, starting with the destruction of the Towers. Many of the nobility had been killed in the attack and most of the survivors had opted to leave Cybertron for neutral territories. While they had no problems talking about war, they had no desire to fight in one. They were also attacking the base with some long range strikes. It was too well guarded at this time to try a direct assault but having missiles lobbed at you in random patterns did have a negative effect on morale. 

Due to the increasing attacks, the Autobots were now starting to relocate most operations to the underground bunkers. The med bay was the first to be moved which angered Ratchet to no end. They were unable to move some of the equipment down to the bunkers which meant if a critical case came in, they had to risk doing surgery in the main facility with Trailbreaker ready to throw up his force field if an attack occurred. Once the patient was stable enough, they could move them to the underground facility for monitoring. 

The twins and Bluestreak were also moved into the underground bunkers. Ratchet commandeered one of the rooms in the underground medical facility as quarters for the younglings. While they had their own space, they were unhappy having to stay underground all of the time. Even with lighting set up to try and mimic the lighting of an orn, it was still claustrophobic and reminded the trio of their situations before their rescues. The adults were unable to spend as much time with them as normal due to increased fighting so they tried to find other activities to keep their attention. Sunstreaker dove into his art. He found it distracting as he could lose himself in whatever project he felt like working on. Bluestreak took up reading whatever texts he could find. Hound and Cliffjumper found some texts in the ruins of the towers and brought them back for the youngling to read. There were a variety of data pads available, from literature to poetry to history texts.

Sideswipe, however, had problems sitting still. While Bluestreak could talk a mile a minute and could be restless, he was just like Sunstreaker in that once he set his mind to something, he was able to focus on that task. It was why he was so good at shooting, he said he just was able to focus on the target and block everything else out. So, he decided to continue the lessons Jazz had started by sneaking around the base. This thrilled Ironhide and Ratchet to no end, and Red Alert threw a conniption when he found out Sideswipe took to sneaking around in the air vents. However, they did have to admit, he was good at staying quiet while “tracking” whatever he felt like following. Most of the time, that was Prowl.

Prowl had had a lot of responsibility thrust on his shoulders the past couple of decaorns. Shortly after the Towers fell, Road Gear had been mortally wounded in an attack on the base. He had been directing a counter offensive in Iacon for the Autobots when the Decepticons had made a lucky hit and struck the area where tactics was observing the battle. While the medics had attempted to stabilize him, Prowl jumped in to direct the battle for the fighters and to alleviate the confusion and fear when Road Gear’s comm when silent. Unfortunately, despite the med teams’ best efforts, Road Gear succumbed to his wounds 2 orns later, never regaining consciousness. This threw both Tactics and Special Ops into an uproar (as one supported the other) and for the time being, the other tacticians deferred to Prowl’s leadership since he had also been a head tactician in Praxus and had an idea of how to run a department. Since Nightshade was now busy handling both his duties as SIC and Road Gear’s duties as TIC, Jazz was essentially running Special Ops and was working closely with Prowl on a regular basis. Command found that the two worked well together, despite their differing personalities and it was often amusing to watch them argue a point to determine the best course of action. According to Smokescreen’s tallies, they were currently tied with bets to be paid out on a groonly basis.

Prowl, although he vowed that he would never let Sideswipe know, enjoyed the tracking games. Sideswipe had taken the doorwings challenge seriously and was bound and determined to find a way to avoid detection via Prowl’s doorwings. He had to admit, he was getting better. 

On this orn, both Sunstreaker and Bluestreak were occupying their time working on their various projects which meant Sideswipe quickly became bored. He snuck out of the new rec room and headed towards the med bay. Walking in, he noticed Ratchet had his back to the door and was focused on something and oblivious to his entry. He crept quietly and with a grin on his face….

“HEY RAAAATCHEETTT!”

Ratchet startled and dropped what he was working on. Turning around, he saw a smirking youngling, proud of his accomplishment. He ran a hand down the front of his face and let out a long exvent. Then, he picked him up and sat him on the table next to what he was working on.

“What are you doing free you little menace”, Ratchet grumbled. “Should have Red Alert lock you up for that little stunt.”

Still smiling, Sideswipe couldn’t help but needle the grumpy mech on. “Oh, you would miss me too much if you did that.”

“Yep, like a bot misses rust rash.”

“Feeling the love Ratchet, feeling the love. So, whatcha doin? Can I help?”

“Trying to recalibrate the scanners,” Ratchet said as he focused on the tool in his hand. However, he pushed the repair kit towards Sideswipe which was his cue to hand him whatever items he asked for.

They had been working for about a joor when there was a rumble through the lower levels of the base. Both looked at each other before looking towards the door. Ratchet took a slight step to his right in order to shield the youngling if necessary.

“Ummm, yeah, sorry about that” Wheeljack’s voice came over the base comms. Sideswipe started giggling while Ratchet mumbled something about Primus damned idiots.

“Ratchet, could you please come down to the main lab,” Perceptor’s voice came over the Med Bay comm. “It appears as if Wheeljack miscalculated. Again.”

“Be right there,” he replied as he lowered Sideswipe to the floor and gathered a few materials. “Go harass Hide for a bit, not too sure how long this will take. Guess it depends on what that idiot did to himself now.”

Sideswipe laughed and followed Ratchet out of the Med Bay before wandering towards command to see if the red mech would be coming off duty soon. However, about half-way there, he spotted a more interesting prospect. Yes, his nemesis, the black and white doorwinger had just walked down an intersecting hallway towards the stairs to the upper levels. Time to see how far he could make it this time before being caught.

***********************

Prowl was headed towards the archive to try and find some additional information to help Tactics try to counter some of the more recent incursions. There had been no rhyme or reason in the recent attacks on the surface. However, he knew there was always an underlying method to a plan and he hoped that some of the older Iaconian records might help shed some light on this problem. Due to being distracted trying to run several different scenarios, he didn’t realize Sideswipe was tailing him until he had reached the hallway where the archives were located.

“I know you are back there Sideswipe,” he said as he turned around and saw nothing. “It is not safe for you to be up here. Please return to the lower levels before I comm Ratchet or Ironhide to come for you.”

He stood there for several breems but saw and heard nothing. The air was uncommonly still and he felt uneasy. Making his way towards the archives once more, his goal was to obtain a few files to take with him back to Tactics. He had a bad feeling and the sooner he returned to the relative safety of the lower levels, the happier he would be. However, in his distraction and worry, he failed to notice the presence of a youngling following him through the vents. Nor did he register the two larger shadows following after the smaller one. 

Once Prowl had reached the archives, he started to download some files from the old mainframe and gather a few old paper files that were there while he waited. There was a quiet metallic squeak and a soft *ka-thump* of little peds hitting the floor.

“I told you to leave,” Prowl said, not even turning around. “It is dangerous for me to be up here for too long, let alone you.”

“Aww, but I was bored,” Sideswipe replied as he strolled up to the table. “Why are you up in the old dusty place?”

“We need some old files that are not accessible in the new mainframe.” Prowl clicked on the complete icon and removed the data stick from the computer. “I must insist you return to the lower levels now, Sideswipe. I meant it when I said….”

He was half-way to the table where the paper files were stacked with a youngling following close behind when his sensors picked up a minute whine. He had only moments to shout at Sideswipe to get down before the base was rocked by multiple explosions.

********************  
“Well, that was one of you least destructive explosions Jackie. We should mark it down in the annals of history,” Ratchet snarked as he attached the last of Wheeljack’s blown off fingers.

While he could be ingenious at times with his weapons and inventions, Wheeljack had a habit of making things go BOOM several times during the process. Thankfully, the powers that be had wisened up to this and had reinforced the walls and doors to the science lab. At least this way, the damage would be contained to the underground dwelling of the resident mad scientist, most of the time.

“Really Wheeljack, how did you manage to attach the leads to the wrong connectors,” Perceptor said as he rubbed the bandages on his arms. He had also been in the lab helping Wheeljack with some projects. Luckily, he was on the other side of the room and had only suffered minor injuries in the most recent accident. 

“Well, I started thinking of those gel bombs that Jazz was wanting for when he had infiltrations and then I got an idea for another type of rifle and well, I guess I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing.”  
“Story of your life Jack, story of your life,” Ratchet said as he finished up. “Don’t worry Perceptor, if he goes too long without blowing something up, we start to get worried. At least this time, the doors weren’t embedded in the hallway.”

Perceptor’s eyes enlarged and he started to ask a question when the floors beneath them began to shake and particles fell from the ceiling.

“Don’t look at me, I’m completely innocent this time!”

Soon, the base alarms started going off with Red Alert announcing over general comms that a party of Decepticons were outside the base and all Autobots to their posts for counter attack. Ratchet grabbed his med kit and was followed at a brisk pace by both Wheeljack and Perceptor towards the Rec Room to gather the boys and then to the Med Bay to await casualties.

********************  
Sideswipe coughed as the dust settled in the room and looked up to see Prowl covering his small frame with his own.

“Are you alright?” Prowl asked as he shook his wings to clear the debris that had settled on them as the particles were interfering with the sensors ability to pick up what was going on around him. Sideswipe nodded his head and then allowed Prowl to help him to his peds. They were lucky in that the missile had impacted some distance from the archives but they could begin to hear the sounds of blaster fire coming from outside. “Come, we must hurry and get back underground as soon as possible.”

They started to make their way back towards the door only to stop when it hissed open. Through the dusty haze, Prowl saw two mechs come through the door with blasters raised. He relaxed some when he saw they were Special Ops agents, Doubletalk and Sidewinder. 

“Thank you for coming to our assistance, we are fine and will be heading back underground,” Prowl said as he grabbed Sideswipe’s hand to lead him from the room. However, the blasters didn’t lower.

“Sorry commander, can’t let that happen,” Sidewinder said as he stepped forward. “You got quite the capture bounty on your head after those last couple of fights. We aim to collect.”

Prowl stiffened and shoved Sideswipe behind him. His posture was still but both his eyes and doorwings were following the two mechs as they started to approach. He heard Sideswipe whine his name quietly and could feel the tremors coming from the small frame. He knew the youngling knew how to fight, however, he was at a severe size disadvantage and most likely weaponless as Ironhide forbade the boys to take their guns outside of the shooting range and he had no subspace access at this time to hold a bladed weapon. 

“Let the youngling go and I will come willingly.”

“Sorry, brat’s coming too,” Doubletalk replied. “Giant walking cannon won’t dare do anything if he thinks it would harm his lil spark.”

Suddenly, Sideswipe felt himself pushed back as both mechs charged at them. He knew Prowl could fight but was amazed that he had hand-to-hand combat skills that could possibly rival Ironhide, maybe even Jazz, in fair combat. Unfortunately, this was anything but fair combat. Prowl had been able to hold his own for a bit but it was two against one. While deflecting a knife blow from Sidewinder, Sideswipe saw Doubletalk come up from behind with a stun stick.

“Behind you!” he yelled but it was too late. Before he could fully turn to address Doubletalk, the stun stick made it past his defenses and with a cry, Prowl went down.

Sideswipe could see Prowl was still conscious but only just so. The light in his optics was dim and he was venting hard from both the fighting and the electric charge from the stun stick.

“Nighty-night,” Sidewinder leered as he moved in for the final blow.

Unable to sit back and watch, Sideswipe grabbed a rod that was laying on the floor and charged towards the two ops mechs. With a yell, he swung the rod and managed to knock the stun stick out of Sidewinder’s hand and across the room. In return, he earned a vicious backhand that sent him into the wall. His helm hit, and then there was nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh-oh, a cliffhanger!
> 
> And for the "Hey Ratchet part, all I could think of are the Mel Brooks skits where someone yells "Hey Abbott!"


	7. Heroes come in all Sizes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will the Autobots find their missing friends in time?

The fighting lasted less than a joor. The Autobots pushed back at the Decepticons and soon, they had retreated. There were few minor injuries but no significant casualties that Optimus knew about.

“You know what’s strange Prime,” Ironhide said as he walked up towards his leader. “They breeched the main gates but made no serious attempt to come through. And all of the fighting was on this side of the base. I would have expected attacks from multiple fronts, spread our manpower out.”

“I understand your concerns,” Optimus replied as he turned to walk back towards base and to his command center. “I’m troubled greatly by this.”

Meanwhile, Ratchet was doing a final tally of the wounded. Most of the injuries were minor in nature but there were a few mechs that were currently healing in stasis. Thankfully, there were no life-threatening concerns at this time. He was wiping off his hands when he received a comm from Jazz.

“Ratchet, can ya come down to th’ rec room? Sunny’s not actin right…”

He walked through the Med Bay doors to walk towards the Rec Room. He figured that the fighting and the explosions might have scared the younglings and Jazz was overreacting. However, when he walked into the room, he saw Sunstreaker curled up in a ball next to Jazz, hands holding his helm.

“What happened!” he demanded as he knelt by Sunstreaker to run a basic scan. He would hear little whimpers coming from the yellow twin and could see he was rocking just slightly.

“I don’t know,” Bluestreak said. “We had crawled under the table when the alarms went off and everything was fine but then he screamed and grabbed his head and he’s been like this ever since and I swear I didn’t see anything hit him or nothing.”

“Come on, let’s get him to the Med Bay so I can run some better scans on him.” Ratchet cradled Sunstreaker, his head leaning against Ratchet’s shoulder while Jazz took Bluestreak’s hand and led the way. 

A half a joor, and many scans later, Ratchet had given Sunstreaker a light sedative to help with the helm pain and to let him sleep. Currently, he was curled up on a med berth with Bluestreak and sleeping quietly. He had been restless, even with the injection, and whimpering for his twin before finally settling into a fitful recharge. 

“Jazz, can you go up to Command and get Sideswipe for me?” Ratchet asked as he pulled a blanket over the two resting younglings. “I’d sent him up there to Ironhide shortly before the attack came. Best to get him out of the way and down here with Sunny.”

“No problem Ratch, be back shortly.” Jazz made his way to the Command Center where he saw Optimus, Ironhide, and Nightshade hovering around a holo-image of the base, looking at where the worst of the fighting was and what damage had occurred. “Hey Hide, ol Ratch wants me to bring Siders down to Med Bay. Sunny’s got himself one pit of a helm ache and he thinks it might help having his twin around.” 

“What are your talkin about Jazz?” Ironhide looked up in confusion. “Sides isn’t up here with me….”

“Wait, Ratch said he sent him up here not too long before the fightin broke out,” Jazz replied. Ironhide just shook his head then yelled out if anyone had seen the red twin come in but received negative responses in return.

“Hey, any of you mechs seen Prowl?” The trio turned to see Smokescreen standing in the doorway. “He went to the Archives almost a couple joors ago but haven’t seen him since.”

Four mechs felt their sparks drop at that statement. Most likely, Sideswipe had come across Prowl and began to tail him. Jazz took off from the room, yelling that he was heading towards the Archives. 

“Red Alert,” Optimus commanded into his comms, “I need you to scour the feeds for any sign of Prowl and Sideswipe starting about two joors ago.” He signaled Ironhide and Nightshade to follow him towards the Security Center. Smokescreen, concerned at how they were acting, tagged along.

“Any area in particular?” 

“Sweep sector beta-7 and focus primarily on the routes from Tactics to the Archives,” Optimus replied. “We will meet you shortly.”

“Understood sir,” Red Alert responded, the noise of his fingers clicking across the keyboard as he focused in on the appropriate security feeds.

*********************

Sideswipe figured he must have gone too far in his tormenting of his brother. He had to admit, his twin had a mean left hook. Ratchet and Ironhide were seriously going to ground him for this. The buzzing noise in the background was doing nothing to help his helm ache.

“Alright Sunny, I get it just turn that frelling thing off!”

“Who is Sunny?” a cultured voice responded.

Sideswipe shot up into a sitting position, then greatly regretted that action and curled back into a ball on the floor. Slowly, he opened his eyes to focus on another mech he’d never met before. He had a lithe build, blue and white in color with yellow optics (never seen those before he thought to himself). He appeared to be just a few vorns into his adult frame and had some bandages on his arms and shoulders.

“Where’s Prowl?” Sideswipe asked as he sat up, slower this time and tried to take in the room they were currently in.

“If that is the name of the mech who came in with you, he hasn’t regained consciousness yet,” the stranger replied, pointing to a familiar black and white frame in the corner of the room. 

Sideswipe crawled over to the collapsed form on the floor. He called out Prowl’s name quietly while gently shaking him, willing him to wake up. Finally, he saw Prowl’s optics light up. He remained still while his eyes took in the room, then focused on Sideswipe. 

“Are you hurt?” he asked as he took in Sideswipe’s appearance. Sideswipe shook his head and then moved to help Prowl sit up. He ran a self-diagnostic and found no serious injuries, nothing some self-repair and several orns of rest wouldn’t remedy. “I see we are not alone.”

The blue and white mech moved towards them. His posture was relaxed and Prowl hoped he wasn’t a threat as he felt he couldn’t take on another opponent at this moment.

“My name is Mirage from House Speculo,” he said as he extended his arm to be clasped in greeting.

“House Speculo, then you are from the Towers?”, Prowl asked as the mech knelt down to the floor.

“I was but they don’t exist anymore.” Mirage looked away from the duo. “My House is known for spark gifts, especially unique ones. My creators learned that the Decepticons were hunting us down in order to try and find a way to control or mimic our gifts. They sent me away to try and protect me but it was for nothing. My home has been destroyed, my family massacred, and someone who I thought a friend betrayed me a few orns ago which has resulted in my being here.”

“Where is here?” Sideswipe asked. He saw no windows that he could look out of to try and orient himself.

Prowl’s wings twitched as they tried to get some readings of their environment. “There is something blocking my sensors, I am unable to get an accurate reading but from what I can tell, it appears we may be in the industrial district.” 

“Makes perfect sense,” Mirage replied. Hardly anyone comes down here anymore since the fighting increased. Not even the Enforcers.”

The door hissed open to allow three mechs entry, two were the traitors who had brought Prowl and Sideswipe here. The third was a mech they had never seen before but he was rather unsavory looking. He was missing an optic and had a deep gouge across his face. Sidewinder held a blaster to them while Doubletalk sat some Energon cubes on the makeshift table by the door.

“Welcome Autobot Tactician Prowl,” the stranger said. “I have no formal designation, creators never saw fit to give me one, living in the gutters and all. However, in these parts, they call me Trapper. You will fetch us quite a few Shanix when we turn you over to the Decepticons. Between you and Towers there, we will be able to leave this cesspool and live us the good life.”

“The Autobots will find us and when they do, you’ll be sorry!” Sideswiped growled at the new mech.

Trapper laughed and then before either Prowl or Mirage could react, he darted across the room, grabbed Sideswipe by his scruff bar, and lifted the youngling to they were optic to optic.

“Oh, little mech, I so hope they try. From what these two say, Ironhide is quite protective of you. I owe him for this missing eye, will be worth it to send you back, maybe missing your helm.” Trapper laughed and then tossed Sideswipe to the floor. “As for you two,” as he gestured to Prowl and Mirage, “the Decepticons will be coming to collect you the orn after tomorrow. Until then, enjoy your stay.”

The trio filed out of the room, the door slamming shut, the locking mechanism echoing in the room. For now, they were trapped.

**************************

“FRAGGING SON OF A GLITCH!”

The wrench slammed into the wall where Ratchet had thrown it just seconds before. Red Alert commed Optimus to get to the Security Center right away and to have Ratchet follow them. He had found what had happened to their missing tactician and youngling, the images of two former Special Ops agents carrying two unconscious forms currently frozen on multiple security screens. 

“I swear, when we find those two poor excuses for mechs, I’ll reformat them into blast shields for Jackie’s lab!”

“That’s if I leave you enough parts to work with when I done with them Ratchet,” Nightshade growled in returned. He had trusted these mechs and in return, they had stabbed the Autobots in the back.

“We need to know if they’ve been passing information to the Decepticons or if this was just a coincidence,” Red Alert said. “If they’ve left breaches in the security network, none of us are safe!”

While the mechs argued about what their next course of action would be, Ratchet received a comm from Med Bay. “Go ahead Patch.”

“Sunny here keeps rambling about Sides and a mech with one optic. I mean, we’re talking faster than Bluestreak rambling.”

“Alright, we’ll be there shortly.” Ratchet signed off and then indicated that they were needed in Med Bay.

“Red Alert,” Optimus ordered, “see if you can determine if there are any security breaches in our network or mainframe and stop them. Smokescreen, help Red Alert.” Smokescreen nodded his head and then sat down next to Red Alert as they started the scans for analysis. “Nightshade, see what background information we have on Doubletalk and Sidewinder and any findings on recent scans and post-mission evaluations. Come meet Ironhide and I in a joor with what you’ve found. We’ll be in the Med Bay until then.”

The trio made their way through the Med Bay doors and towards the berth where Patch was sitting with Sunstreaker. Ratchet could see very fine tremors and a confused look on his face. Sunstreaker looked up and held his arms up for Ironhide to pick him up while Ratchet dismissed Patch back to his regular duties.

“What’s wrong Sunny?” Ironhide asked.

He looked uncertainly around the room and at the mechs around him. Bluestreak was looking at him with what Sideswipe called “Cyberpuppy Eyes” and Ratchet was muttering to himself as he tapped a wrench against his leg.

“You’ll think I’m crazy,” Sunstreaker muttered quietly. 

“We will never think that about you Sunstreaker,” Optimus replied as he placed his hand on the youngling’s helm in a comforting gesture. 

Sunstreaker bit his lip and looked around the room again. “I can feel Sides. He’s scared.”

This got Ratchet’s full attention, “What do you mean Sunny? What do you mean you can feel Sideswipe?”

“I can feel him in my spark.”

****************************

Prowl finally managed to coax Sideswipe into recharge but was not able to fully offline himself. He noticed Mirage watching them quietly.

“Is he yours” the noble asked quietly. “He places a lot of trust in you.”

“No he is a war orphan, he and his twin.”

Twins! That is a rarity! How did you find them?”

Prowl slightly shifted in order to take some of the pressure off of his wings. “I do not know the full story as they were found prior to Praxus being destroyed. However, it appears they were found during a raid on a Kaon fight ring.”

“They were very fortunate to be found by the Autobots,” Mirage said. “Most twins are lucky to live through their first orn.”

“Both he and his brother are fighters despite the stigma placed upon them,” Prowl replied. “You mentioned you had a spark gift and that is why you were captured. Do you know if there are any others like us here?”

“As far as I can tell, no,” Mirage returned. “I’ve tried to engage my cloaking device to try and sneak out of here but they have somehow blocked my ability to do so.”

“Cloaking device?” Prowl asked with a raised eye ridge.

“Yes, my gift permits me to utilize a device that permits the user to appear invisible. Was very useful when I was a child and wanted to sneak out of my room,” Mirage chuckled. “I’ve been told that Shockwave has tried to copy the technology but has failed due to needing the gift to make it work.”

“Which is why he needs you, he needs to find a way to mimic your gift and there is no better way to do this than to use the original.”

Mirage nodded his head. He went to reply but was stopped by footsteps coming down the hall to their cell door. The door unlocked and opened to show Trapper with their morning allotment of Energon. Sideswipe shifted at the noise and powered his optics on low. 

“Good news mechs,” he said as he sat the cubes down. “The Decepticons are coming to collect you earlier than originally planned. By this time tomorrow, you’ll be well on your way to Darkmount and I’ll be on my way off this cesspool.”

He laughed as he walked out and relocked the door. Prowl had been observing the room during the night while conversing with Mirage. Now it was time to create a plan of action.

***************************

Ratchet had been hitting the files for the past few joors while Nightshade and Jazz were tracking down any potential leads that would take them to their missing comrades. Ironhide and Optimus stayed with Bluestreak and Sunstreaker, trying to keep them calm and entertained while they tried to figure out their next step.

“I think I may have some good news in this whole mess,” Ratchet said as he walked into the room. “There is very little on split spark twins in the medical journals. However, I did find some articles that discussed the unique bond a twin has. Not only can a twin pick up on their sibling’s emotions, there is evidence that they can potentially communicate with each other through this bond!”

Sunny’s head perked up. “How do I talk to Sides? I wanna help find them”.

“Unfortunately, it’s not that easy Sunny,” Ratchet slumped. “Apparently it’s something that will develop with time, at least the full ability. You won’t be able to talk to Side as far as I can tell.”

“Then why do I feel him? He’s been quiet but I can still feel him! It’s like he’s trying to tell me where he is!”

“What if they aren’t communicating in the traditional sense, Ratch,” Ironhide pondered. “He’s been rubbing his chest saying his sparks pullin’. What if it’s pullin’ him towards Sides?”

“Call Nightshade and Jazz back,” Optimus said. “At this point in time, I’m willing to try anything.”

***************************

Sideswipe and Mirage watched while Prowl slowly paced the room, almost as if he was searching for something. Finally, he stopped in front of some crates and started to move them aside. Mirage came over to help and soon they had moved them far enough to uncover a small vent. While they wouldn’t be able to use it to escape, Sideswipe should just fit.

“While I am unable to use my sensors to determine the environment outside of this cell, they have been able to pick up air currents within. It took some time but I was finally able to pinpoint the source.” Prowl started to loosen the bolts holding the cover on when once again, footsteps were coming down the hall. “You will fit Sideswipe, go through the vents and try to find help.”

“But what about you, about Mirage!” Sideswipe exclaimed as Prowl pushed him towards the opening.

“We won’t fit, it’s up to you,” Mirage replied.

“But…..”

“No buts Sideswipe, it’s up to you.

Just then the door swung open. Prowl yelled at Sideswipe to go and gave him a strong shove into the vent opening. He heard the scramble of peds as their kidnappers ran to the vent to try and catch him before he got too far. He crawled as fast as he could and didn’t look back. Finally, he came to some connectors where he could hide around the corner and catch his breath but still hear what was going on in their cell.

“I don’t see him Trapper,” a voice that sounded like Sidewinder said.

“He won’t get too far,” Trapper replied. In the fight for the vent opening, Prowl had been shoved out of the way and landed awkwardly on a door wing while Doubletalk grabbed a hold of Mirage to keep him from joining the fight. “As for these two, cuff ‘em. Their ride will be here in a few joors.”

Sideswipe heard his companions struggle with their captors while the stasis cuffs were applied and then drug out of their room. Now it was up to him.

**********************

Since Sunstreaker was so young and had limited control over what was determined to be a twin bond, Jazz mentioned in passing that maybe they should just drive around Iacon with the younglings and see if Sunstreaker felt anything. Well, one joor later, that is what they were doing. He, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Optimus were driving around Iacon with the younglings riding inside of Nightshade. They started out by circling the base to get a general direction to search. Sunstreaker mentioned he felt his spark pulling, maybe it was trying to pull him towards his other half. Sure enough, as they went around towards the east side, he felt the pressure in his chest grow stronger. Unfortunately, east of the base was the industrial district with many abandoned factories and warehouses that could be potential hideouts. Jazz had been scouting ahead since he was the stealthiest of his companions while the others used their scanners to try and pick up any signs of Prowl or Sideswipe.

“Come in bossbot,” Jazz said quietly into his comm.

“Optimus here Jazz.”

“I’m about twenty clicks or so north of your position, found a warehouse with some low lighting. Took a quick look-see and low and behold, found meh some traitors. Sending coordinates now.”

The rescue party waited to receive the coordinates that Jazz transmitted. They were readying to leave when “uh-oh” came over the comms.

“What is it Jazz?” Nightshade asked.

“We got some Con company. Looks like Onslaught and Brawl.”

“At least he doesn’t have that psycho copter with him,” Ironhide stated.

“Nightshade, stay with Ratchet and the boys, coordinate our attack across from the warehouse Jazz has identified,” Optimus ordered.

“Oh no Optimus,” Ratchet growled. “I want a piece of those slaggers for taking my red menace. No one hurts MY red menace.”

“Ratch, I don’t know”

*CLANG*

“Have it your way Ratch,” Ironhide mumbled, rubbing the newly created dent.

“Autobots, roll out,” Optimus commanded.

************************

There was a knocking at the warehouse door. Prowl and Mirage had been forced to kneel in the corner, arms cuffed behind their backs. Sidewinder took a peek outside and then opened the door. “About time you got here.”

“This the merchandise?” Onslaught asked as he walked over to the prisoners.

“One tactician and one spark gifted noble, just as we promised,” Trapper replied, pulling the two prisoners to their feet. 

Onslaught motioned to Brawl who pulled several data sticks from his subspace and showed them to Doubletalk. “And your payment, as promised.”

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Trapper said. “Shall we load up your merchandise?"

Onslaught moved towards the middle of the open floor and transformed into his vehicle mode. The transport hatch opened; Prowl and Mirage were about out of time.

Meanwhile, Sideswipe had been crawling around the vents for several joors. He was lost, he was dirty, and he was hungry. Prowl was counting on him to save them but he couldn’t even find his way out of the vent system. Eventually, he heard voices and started making his way towards them. Granted, it was probably taking him closer to his kidnappers but at the same time, maybe it would also put him closer to getting out of this mess.

He came to a grate on an upper level of the open space. It appeared at one time, manufacturing was done here. There was a large open lower level where machines one stood. Around this area was an elevated walkway where supervisors or other personnel could walk and observe the manufacturing below with ease. The grate was loose attached and he was able to push it off of the wall with little difficulty. He found some abandoned crates on the walkway and crouched behind them to observe what was going on below. He saw a large black mech transform and open a hatch to a transport module. These must have been the Decepticons Trapper was talking about. He had to act quickly or he would never see Prowl again and he couldn’t allow that to happen. He pushed on one of the crates and saw that it moved easily. He peered through the slats in the walkway and saw Trapper right below him with Prowl and Mirage. If he could time it just right, he might be able to help them get away.

Prowl and Mirage struggled with Trapper as he led them by one arm each towards the open transport module. However, they had limited strength to do so as the stasis cuffs had been set on high, sapping most of their energy. Suddenly, Mirage saw Prowl’s wings twitch minutely. Then again. He dug his feet into the floor to try and stall their forward progress with some success. 

“Mirage, to your left, NOW!” he heard Prowl yell. He jerked to his left while Prowl went towards the right, falling out of the way of a large crate them came off the walkway and shattered on Trapper’s helm. They looked up at the walkway to see Sideswipe peering over at them. 

“Get him you fools!” Trapper yelled. 

Sidewinder and Doubletalk made to take off towards the youngling when they heard an engine rev outside and the overhead door exploded into pieces as a large transport unit barreled through. Optimus transformed, closely followed by Ironhide and Ratchet.

“Our agreement was for one Autobot and one Neutral!” Onslaught growled at Trapper. “Consider the terms void.”

Brawl then transformed and drove out the other end of the building, Onslaught followed through the new hole made by his Gestalt mate and both disappeared into the darkness. 

“You just cost me a lot of Shanix mechs,” Trapper leered and he pulled a sword from his subspace. “You’re going to pay for that!”.

With a roar, he charged towards Ironhide, who parried the blow. “I’ll show you what happens to mechs who hurt my younglings,” Ironhide growled in return. “Bring it coward.”

While Ironhide fought with Trapper and Prime took on Doubletalk, Ratchet made his way over to Prowl and Mirage where he deactivated and removed their stasis cuffs.

“You mechs ok?” he asked as he pulled a scanner from subspace.

“We are fine Ratchet,” Prowl replied rubbing his wrists and then pushing Ratchet towards the stairs and pointing up them. “Go help Sideswipe, Sidewinder is chasing after him.”

Ratchet nodded and threw the scanner back into his subspace. He bolted up the stairs and ran in the direction the Praxian pointed him in. 

While the fighting was going on below, Sideswipe was trying to get away from Sidewinder. The mech was fast and agile, not to mention the size difference that was eroding any head start he had by already being upstairs. He heard Sidewinder behind him, taunting him. He needed someplace to hide and fast. Just then, he noticed a recess in the wall. It wasn’t a vent but hopefully it would be deep enough that he could hide from his pursuer. Unfortunately, it was several feet off the ground and he would have to make a running leap for it. Using what little energy he had left, he put on a burst of speed and leapt for the recess. He slammed into the wall with an oomph but he was able to get a handhold on the recess. He started to pull himself up when Sidewinder came around the corner. He was almost there, almost safe. Then there was a sharp pain from his lower leg. Sidewinder had been able to make it over to him before he was able to pull himself into the recess completely. His fingers dug into to the metal, trying to keep his grip and prevent himself but being pulled down. In response, Sidewinder just squeezed his lower leg harder.

“Get down here you little brat,” Sidewinder grunted as he tried to pull the struggling youngling down. 

Finally, Sidewinder pushed off the wall, twisting as he did so causing a loud SNAP in Sideswipe’s leg. With a scream, he let go of the wall and was flung back onto the walkway. He whimpered as he reached for his leg. He tried to push on it so he could get back onto his feet but it was no use, his leg was broken.

“Get away from him!” Ratchet yelled as he flung a wrench in Sidewinder’s direction. He managed to dodge the flying tool by jumping back and to the side but it allowed Ratchet an opening to get to his ward.   
“It’s alright Sides, I’m here,” Ratchet said as he crouched beside the injured youngling.

“Oh, I don’t think so medic,” Sidewinder said as he pulled a knife from subspace. Ratchet jumped to his feet, standing in front of Sideswipe, and armed himself with the only weapon he had left, a laser scalpel. “You think you can stop me with that pitiful thing. Please, we all know your coding won’t let you harm a nanite on my body.”

Ratchet tensed, it was true that medic coding was strongly against causing serious harm or deactivation towards another. However, there was no way he was going to let this maniac near his youngling. 

“That’s right, Ratchet can’t harm a nanite on your bodeh, but I can.”

A bladed weapon shot though Sidewinder’s chest, through his spark chamber, and emerged out the front. Suddenly, the blade retracted and Sidewinder fell to the floor, his body already graying in death.

“Let’s go home,” Jazz said as he came out of the shadows, He watched as Ratchet gently picked Sideswipe up and walked towards the stairs. It was quiet down on the lower level, Optimus and Ironhide must have taken care of their opponents. Without looking back and whistling a little tune, Jazz followed to join his friends. 

**********************

“You look like you need this Ratchet,” Nightshade said as he said a cube of high grade on the desk in front of the medic. Prowl and Sideswipe were now safely back on base and had their injuries treated. However, none of the kidnappers survived. Jazz had killed Sidewinder while Optimus and Ironhide had been able to subdue their opponents. However, both soon erupted into seizures on the warehouse floor before deactivating. Upon examination, it was found that both had access to cyber-cide and chose to end their lives rather than face an inquiry for kidnapping and treason. “How is Sideswipe doing?"

“Resting,” Ratchet replied after taking a long draw from his cube. “Slagger crushed his leg and it’s not like I can replace it at this time. The little menace is going to be in a brace until it heals.”

“At least you won’t have to worry about any sneak attacks for a while,” Nightshade joked. “I will tell you though, I think we need to look more into this twin bond. While you mechs were inside, Sunny did nothing but pace and fidget. It must have been when Sides got hurt because he let out this blood-curdling scream, I swear it knocked some vorns off my life!”

“I plan to Shade, but for now, it can wait until morning.”

Ratchet finished his cube, then followed Nightshade out the office door. He did a quick perimeter walk around the Med Bay. Prowl and Mirage were in recharge, both receiving Energon through IV lines. Prowl was laying on his side, Bluestreak curled up to his chest, little door wings fluttering in recharge. 

“I hear Mirage plans on sticking around,” Ratchet said as he ran some scans to check how well the cloaking device was healing from repairs. 

“He is, will be a great asset to Special Ops,” Nightshade replied.

“Just as long as you don’t send him on any undercover missions involving my Med Bay, I have enough to deal with as is!”

They walked over towards the last occupied berth. Sideswipe was laying on his back, broken leg supported in a brace and sling while Sunstreaker was curled up beside him. Ironhide was sprawled out in the chair next to the berth, snoring. It was a wonder the twins hadn’t been woken up. 

“Almost looks innocent,” Nightshade observed.

“Which one, the little menaces or the big one,” Ratchet chuckled as he relaxed into the chair on the other side.

Nightshade made his way over to the entrance, placed a hand on the light switch, and then turned back. “Need anything else before I go?”

“Nah, go get some rest. As for me, unless it’s an emergency, Med Bay is closed,” Ratchet replied, shuttering his optics and falling into recharge himself.

“Duly noted.” Nightshade turned off the lights and shut the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 14 pages, my brain is fried.....


	8. The Mural

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At little downtime at the Autobot base

“Sunny, I’m bored”

Sunstreaker sighed as he heard that exclamation from his twin for the tenth time this orn. While it was slowly driving him nuts, deep down, he couldn’t fault his brother. Sideswipe was always the active one, now he was essentially berth-ridden. It had been a little over a decaorn since the rescue and Sideswipe needing his right leg placed in bracing due to the injuries he sustained while trying to get away from Sidewinder. He handled the first few orns well, of course, pain meds greatly assisted in that venture. However, as orns passed, he was getting more and more restless. He’d gone through all of the data pads (at least the interesting ones) and much of the programming that was streamed related to recent Decepticon attacks and political matters. Definitely not something a youngling wants to watch. Some of the Autobots had brought over some vid-discs but it was hard to sit for joors on end watching the vid-screen. Making matters worse, he wasn’t allowed to walk on his leg. Ratchet said things were healing well but it was still going to be several more decaorns before he would even consider letting Sideswipe put some weight on that leg, key phrase being some. Wheeljack had whipped together some youngling sized crutches (which were deemed safe) that were nice for getting around their quarters. However, they tired him out quickly so if he wanted to go someplace, Sideswipe had to rely on others to give him a lift. Not an easy thing to do when attacks were increasing on Iacon and the base was on a constant state of red alert. So, more often than not, the younglings were stuck in their quarters with a bored Sideswipe. 

“So what do you want to do?” Sunstreaker huffed at his twin.

“I don’t know, anything,” Sideswipe replied, flopping back on the berth. “Just get me out of here.”

“How about I see if someone can help us down to the rec room,” Bluestreak said. He saw Sunstreaker starting to get agitated with his brother. He had been working on this particular sketch for a couple of orns now and really wanted to try and get it finished. “How does that sound?”

“Anything, just something different. I’m losing my mind!”

“That would have required you to have one in the first place,” Sunstreaker retorted

Bluestreak ran out of the room as Sideswipe grabbed one of the nearby pillows to throw at his twin. Ratchet saw the little Praxian run out of their quarters and then take a quick glance around the med bay.

“Everything alright Blue?” he asked. “What are the hellions getting into now?”

“Nothing too bad Ratchet. However, I think Sides might need some new pillows.”

“SIDESWIPE!” Ratchet yelled. “Stop using those pillows as weapons and start using them for your leg!”. A quiet “Yes Ratchet” was heard through the door while Ratchet shook his helm, muttering something about twin spawns before remembering that Bluestreak came out here for something.

“Ratchet, do you think someone can help Sides so we can go to the Rec Room?” he asked. “I think he’s starting to go crazy cooped up in our quarters all of the time.”

He sat down the tool he was cleaning and let Patch know he was taking the younglings to the Rec Room and would return shortly. After getting Sideswipe from the suite, he took the group down to the currently empty Rec Room. 

“Don’t cause too much trouble boys,” Ratchet said as he sat Sideswipe on the sofa and adjusted the pillows on his leg. 

“We won’t.” Sideswipe reached for the Vid-Screen controller so they could find something to watch. While he and Bluestreak settled down to watch a movie, Sunstreaker situated himself on the other end of the sofa and resumed his sketching.

Soon enough, the trio was bored again. Sunstreaker noticed some paint that had been stacked in the corner of the Rec Room. Repairs were still being completed after the last attack and it looked like some supplies had been left down here for later use. He went over to inspect the cans and found that most of them were near empty, generally less than one-quarter full. 

“Anything in them?” Bluestreak asked as he helped Sides over to his brother and sitting him on the ground.

“Just looks like pain remnants,” Sunny replied. He noticed Sideswipe take the lid off of one of the cans and stick his hand in. It came out covered in green paint.

“Hey, watch this,” he said as he flung some of the green paint on the wall, hitting and spreading out in all directions.

“Sides! We’ll get in trouble!” Bluestreak gasped as he watched Sideswipe reach in for another blob.

“Why? The paint is left over and the walls are gunmetal gray,” he replied. “I bet Sunny could do something awesome with this wall!”

The duo looked over at Sunstreaker who was busy checking out all of the colors available. There actually was a nice pallet available, with blues, greens, yellows, reds, and more. There were different shades available and while there were limited amounts in these cans, Sideswipe was right, he could do something awesome with this wall.

“Come on Sunny, you know you want to.” Sunstreaker glared at his brother, who was also needling him through their recently opened twin bond.

“Alright, here is what we’re going to do.”

\---------------------------------

About a joor later, Smokescreen came down to check on the younglings. After seeing what they were doing, and hearing their explanation, he figured why should they have all of the fun and he could get that spot in the corner that was out of reach. Next came in Hound and Trailbreaker, then some of the new recruits just released from Ironhide’s trainings. Then, Jazz came down to see what was going on and decided this was one party he couldn’t miss. Blaster provided the music and the Iaconian Paint Party was on.

\-----------------------------------------

“I’m glad you feel the new recruits are doing well, Ironhide,” Optimus said as he and the large red mech made their way down to the Rec Room for evening rations. 

“I was a little concerned at first, these guys weren’t made to be fighters,” Ironhide explained, “but they’re learning quickly. Just got to hope they don’t forget it on the battlefield.”

The closer they got to the Rec Room, the louder the music became. This was nothing new, here recently Blaster and Jazz liked to through impromptu parties to help keep up morale. What they walked into though, was a complete surprise.

“Um, Ratchet and Prowl to the Rec Room,” Ironhide sighed over the coms as they stood in the doorway.

\-----------------------------------------

“I swear, I can’t leave those little pit spawns alone for a moment,” Ratchet grumbled as he made his way down to the Rec Room. He met Prowl coming out of the lift and nodded his head in silent greeting.

“Do you know why we have been summoned?” Prowl asked as he walked in step with Ratchet. 

“No clue,” Ratchet replied, “but I have a good idea it has something to do with a pair of twins who decided to drag your little brother along for the ride.”

They continued to walk towards the Rec Room in silence, dreading what they were going to find and how many paychecks it would take to pay for the damage. However, they too, stopped short in the doorway.

“What in Primus’s name is going on in here!” Ratchet exclaimed.

Several walls were covered in multiple colors, that while random, seemed to have a pattern at the same time. Instead of dark, dingy gray, there were splatters and streaks of various colors. There were multiple empty paint cans strewn around the room as other remnants were found around the base and brought to the Rec Room for the paint party. In some areas, it looked like paint cans had their contents tossed towards the walls, in others, there were hand prints and paint swirls. There were spatters and streaks, stripes and splotches. Jazz was using his magnets to hang from the ceiling to help Bluestreak get the corner near the dispenser. Sideswipe was sitting on Ironhide’s shoulders, flinging paint at the wall with a make-shift brush. In the middle of it all was Sunstreaker, directing the “painters” with his vision. 

“It’s quite remarkable, don’t you think?” Optimus chuckled as he stepped up to the new arrivals. He had some paint on his shoulders and helm, showing that he too had been partaking in Sunny’s vision. 

Seeing Prowl at the entryway, Bluestreak had Jazz lower him to the floor so he could run over to his older brother, doorwings quivering in excitement. “Look Prowl, isn’t this neat. Sunny is really good at this. He found some paint and he started to tell us what to do and where to do it at.”

By now, everyone had stopped what they were doing to see what would happen. Since Optimus had joined in, they knew they weren’t going to be disciplined. However, they were a little concerned with Ratchet’s wrench arm.

“What do ya think Ratch?” Ironhide said as he walked over with Sideswipe, still sitting on his shoulders and still sporting a huge grin. 

“I think our little artist needs to sign his work,” Ratchet smiled, pulling a large marker out of his subspace. 

Sunstreaker uncapped the marker, and signed his glyphs in the lower right corner. After his signature was applied, all of the witnesses broke out in cheers and applause for the budding artist.

“Oh, and Hide,” Ratchet said as he took the whole mural in. “You’ve got three younglings to clean tonight.”

Looking at the three paint covered, smiling younglings that surrounded him, Ironhide could only groan as Optimus and Prowl laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, while short, just didn't want to cooperate. Tried to go several different ways before it decided to settle down and go in this direction.


	9. King takes Bishop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A day in the park is never just a day in the park

For almost two decaorns now, it had been fairly quiet on the battle front. The Decepticons had made no major moves and short of some minor skirmishes when scouting parties ran into each other, there had been no serious fighting. While tactics and special ops continued to obtain and evaluate intel, the base had been downgraded from high state of alert. While there was some argument both for and against this action, in the end, it was felt that the downgrade would be the better option at this time as the soldiers were starting to become worn down from the constant ready state and extra shifts. While everyone was still on alert, more downtime was granted between shifts and trainings. 

Sideswipe’s leg continued to heal and Ratchet recently placed him in a less restrictive brace that permitted him to be a little more mobile. While he still had to use crutches to get around, he was allowed to bear some weight on it now and the newer support wasn’t as bulky and cumbersome. 

“Slow down you two, this old mech ain’t as fast as you are!” Ironhide yelled as Sunstreaker and Bluestreak made their way to the common area. He was following behind with Sideswipe sitting on his shoulders and Mirage following close behind.

Earlier in the day, Ironhide had made the argument to let him take the boys off base to a nearby crystal garden. He thought it would be good for them to get off base for a bit, even if it was only for a joor or two. The park had avoided most of the damage from Decepticon intrusions and Iacon residents visited on an ornly basis. There were grounds for young ones to play and shaded areas where one could just lay back and relax. Ratchet was very hesitant to let the twins off base but when Prowl stated he had no problems with Bluestreak going on the trip as long as there was adequate supervision, he finally relented to the sounds of happy younglings. Due to being off shift, and walking by the Med Bay at the time, Mirage was roped into youngling duty as well.

After playing for some time, the trio plopped down in an open area not far from Ironhide and Mirage. Sideswipe curled up on one side of Ironhide and soon fell asleep while Bluestreak curled up on the other side and started reading. Sunstreaker sat not far from Mirage who was watching the youngling sketch different scenes, from crystal clusters in the garden to the other visitors. 

Ironhide had just started to relax some of his systems when he sensed some changes around them. They were very minute and none of the other visitors had noticed but years of battle training and readiness made him more alert to these minute things. As he was sitting up, he noticed an incoming comm.

“Are you still at the park?!” Red Alert sounded somewhat worried over the comm to both Ironhide and Mirage.

Before either could reply, an explosion was heard from several miles away which jolted relaxed younglings to full awareness and shocked the other visitors in the garden.

“INCOMING!!” Ironhide yelled as he swung Bluestreak over next to Sideswipe and used his body to shield both them and Mirage who was covering Sunstreaker. Just a few breems after, there were some closer explosions that sent a wave of dust and debris over the garden. Panic set in and the inhabitants started yelling and running in any direction to try and flee from the incoming shells.

“SITREP” Ironhide swung Sideswipe onto his hip while Mirage grabbed Bluestreak and Sunstreaker and started to make their way out of the garden back towards the base. 

“Decepticons are attacking Iacon,” Red Alert broke in over the comm. “Most forces are directed towards the old Senate and the docks are under attack.”

“Any clear path back to base?” The shells were coming faster and gunfire could now be heard in the distance.

“You’ll have to circle south and then east,” Red Alert replied. “The main forces are focused to the north and west but smaller parties are making their way through the residential districts. We’re mustering most of our forces to meet them and sending out scouting parties to confront the smaller skirmishing groups and evacuate civilians.”

At that moment, trines of Seekers flew overhead. Bluestreak stopped running and crouched down on the ground, covering his head with his hands, his wings shaking in fear.

“Come on Blue, we gotta go!” Sunstreaker yelled as he turned around to grab his friend but Bluestreak refused to move. Suddenly Mirage was there and picked up the scared youngling. 

“I have him Sunstreaker, now let’s go!” The duo caught up with Ironhide and Sideswipe and made their way out of the south entrance from the garden. While part of them wanted to stay and help with evacuation, both Ironhide and Mirage knew that their main concern was the trio of younglings. They corralled what mechs and femmes they could and directed them to follow them south towards the scouting parties but they were unable to do more at that time. They could only hope that the other visitors listened to their directions. 

\---------------------------------

“Where are they?” Optimus commanded as he walked into tactics. He made eye contact with Prowl, and while he was the epitome of professionalism, directing troops where they needed to go, he could tell by his optics that he was concerned for his younger brother.

“We have Ironhide and Mirage’s beacons on screen,” Smokescreen replied, pointing to two flashing dots on the holo-map. “Red Alert directed them to go south for a ways to try and avoid the bulk of the fighting.

“Nightshade, prepare a team that will intercept Ironhide and Mirage and get them and the younglings back to base safely,” Optimus ordered. Prepare the rest of the troops, we will need to attack the Decepticons on multiple fronts. Have Ratchet prepare Med-Bay for injured civilians. Anyone in the Science Department with any type of medical or triage training are to report to him immediately. We need to push Megatron back from these areas so we can evacuate the civilians to base. Focus all power to the Med Bay Tactics, and the shield generators.”

Nightshade walked out of Tactics and towards Wheeljack’s lab “Jazz, find Hound and meet me in Jackie’s lab, time to gear up.”

“What’s the plan bossman,” Jazz replied over the comms.

“We’re on search and rescue.”

\--------------------------------------

Ironhide and Mirage were trying to make their way back towards base but the Seekers were making it difficult to move anywhere. Between gunfire and bombs being dropped, they had to keep circling back to try and avoid detection. Ironhide suddenly stopped and with a quick motion, spun around to toss Sideswipe towards Mirage and completing his circle to lock arms with a large purple and black seeker that appeared with a pop.

“Lookee here, old man out for a day with the grandkids. Ain’t that sweet,” the Seeker goaded Ironhide. 

“Ah shut it Skywarp, ain’t got time for you,” Ironhide replied. 

Mirage cradled Sideswipe with one arm while grabbing Bluestreak with his other. Sunstreaker quickly followed as they took cover behind some debris while Ironhide took on this new enemy. While the Seeker had size, Ironhide had age and skill and soon was able to knock the mech off-balance. He lined up a quick shot while threw the Seeker into the wall down the street, knocking the debris on top of him.

“Come on, we don’t have much time before he digs himself out and calls for backup!” Ironhide yelled. He ran over to Mirage and grabbed Bluestreak and started to run towards an entrance to the tunnels. “We’re goin underground!”

Mirage quickly followed with Sideswipe. However, Sunstreaker stopped short at the top of the stairs as something caught his attention. There was a large gray mech flying towards them with two other Seekers at his side. 

“Now Sunny, if Skywarp is here, ole buckethead won’t be too far behind!”

Sunstreaker ran down the stairs towards the rest of the group. “He’s already here!”

Ironhide began cursing. The lights were flickering in the tunnels due to the power structures being damaged in the attack. After the initial warning from Red Alert, he lost contact with the base, most likely due to Soundwave blocking comm units. “Mirage, find some shelter with the younglings, first change you get, get goin. I’ll hold them off as long as I can,” Ironhide said as he spun both cannons into place and readied his other weapons. 

“I have no doubt your fighting skills Ironhide, but you are mad if you think you can hold them off,” Mirage replied, getting the younglings in an alcove and then confronting the weapons master.

“I just need to delay them long enough for you to slip out of here with them.”

“And leave me to face Ratchet, we leave together!”

“I don’t have time ta argue over this, I’m in charge and I SAY”

“My my my,” Ironhide and Mirage both quickly turned to look at the tunnel entrance. “It seems these new recruits have no respect for you Ironhide. Your skills must be getting rusty.”

A large gray mech slowly made his way down the stairs with three Seekers covering his back. One was the purple one from before, the others were a dark blue mech with an impassive face and the other was red and white with an air of superiority that Mirage felt would rival anyone in the towers. 

“Megatron,” Ironhide turned to square off against the large mech. “I’d say it was a pleasure but I’d be lyin.”

“And what have we here, younglings?” Megatron ignored the large red mech at the moment to see the three figures huddling behind Mirage. “Oh look, one’s a Praxian, looks like to missed one Starscream, it appears you can’t even destroy a city properly.”

“Something that can be easily rectified, My Lord,” the red and white Seeker spat out. 

The Seeker engaged his sword from subspace and went to take a step around his leader. Bluestreak was frozen with fear while the twins tried to move in front of him, growling at the large mech who was threatening their friend.

“Well, aren’t they vicious little things,” Megatron stated. “Perfect little soldiers.”

This time, Mirage stepped in front of the twins, blocking all three from view and shouldering his rifle. “Do not come closer,” he warned, “or your spark chambers will have some extra vent holes.”

Suddenly, Megatron lashed out towards Ironhide and the fight was one. While the two larger mechs fought hand to hand, Mirage was attempting to snipe at the three Seekers to keep them by the entrance. He reached into his subspace and was able to withdraw a flash grenade curtesy of Wheeljack. He pressed the button and lobbed it towards the Seekers. Thankfully it worked as Wheeljack intended and was able to drive the Seekers back up the stairs for the moment. The explosion caught both Ironhide and Megatron off guard for a moment. Unfortunately, Megatron recovered first and was able to land a sucker punch on Ironhide who landed dazed several feet away. 

“HIDE!” a chorus of young voices cried out.

Megatron turned towards Mirage next. Despite his speed, Mirage was no match for Megatron’s size and was soon knocked out of the way. He turned towards the younglings, an evil grin coming across his face. He stepped closer and then went to reach out for them. However, before he could make contact, Sunstreaker dropped to the ground and then leapt up with a cry, slashing out as he landed on the warlord’s arm and then flipped back off again. Megatron grabbed his forearm and roared with pain and anger from where Sunstreaker had driven a broken piece of metal into his arm. 

“You’ll pay for that you little pit spawn!” Megatron roared as he lined up his cannon.

“You won’t touch a nanite on that pit spawn’s body!” 

Before he could fire his cannon, Megatron was tackled by Ironhide who had recovered from the earlier explosion. After rolling back and forth a couple of times, Ironhide was finally able to get some leverage and tossed Megatron close to the entrance where his Seekers were trying to make their way through the debris and back to their leader.

“You will all die for this!” Megatron lined up for another shot while Ironhide crouched in front of the youngling, hoping to take most of the blow and leave them unharmed. Again, fate intervened for Megatron suddenly dropped to his knees, a pool of energon forming around his left ped.

“Take them and go Ironhide!” Mirage yelled. “I’ll follow shortly!”

The younglings looked around, they could hear Mirage but they didn’t see him. And what happened to Megatron to cause him to drop like that. Ironhide didn’t hesitate though, he grabbed Sideswipe and swung him around to one hip. Sunstreaker reacted shortly thereafter and grabbed Bluestreak’s hand, dragging him to his feet and they began running down the tunnel.

“Go Sunny, Blue, keep running and don’t stop!” Ironhide yelled as the two younglings passed him.

“Where’s Mirage!” Sideswipe yelled.

In the commotion, the Seekers had finally cleared the entrance and made their way to their leader.

“Shoot them you fools!” Megatron commanded and the Seekers opened fire with their blasters. 

Sideswipe heard Mirage yell out in pain from behind them. He peered over Ironhide’s shoulders but still didn’t see the blue and white mech. However, he did notice a flashing blue light about fifty feet behind them. Next thing he heard was Mirage yelling to take cover. The quartet no more than took shelter in an alcove along the tracks before the bomb blew, sending debris flying and collapsing the roof, creating a barrier between themselves and the Decepticons. Then there was darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, another cliffie!


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Battle of Iacon continues

Emergency lighting flickered in the tunnel as dust from the explosions started to settle. Ironhide slowly raised himself up from where he had sheltered three younglings so he could see how much damage had been done. It appeared that the explosion took out one of the support pillars causing debris to block the tunnel and cutting off any Decepticon access for the time being. Hearing footsteps come walking down the tunnel, he charged his cannon and aimed towards the sound. Soon he could see a mech flicker into existence. Mirage was slowly making his way down the tunnel, holding his left arm against his body.

“Cut it just a little too close there, Mirage,” Ironhide breathed out in relief as he lowered his cannon. “How bad?”

“Bad enough,” he replied as he started to stumble. By this time, Ironhide had reached him and was able to help support him back to the alcove where three sets of optics looked on in relief. 

“Easy does it,” Ironhide said as he sat Mirage onto the ground and leaned him up against the wall. He removed the hand that Mirage had pressed against his arm for a closer look. “Looks like someone winged you pretty good, gonna have to take care of this before we move out again.”

He pulled a small med kit out of his subspace. He wasn’t Ratchet but he did know some basic battlefield patch jobs.  
“Sides, I need you to keep kneading this until it gets pretty soft” and handed him a small piece of wound flex. “Bluestreak, help him drink this ration. He’s going to need it to replace the energon he lost. Sunny, I need you to hand me things from the kit. Can you do that?”

While Sideswipe worked on squishing and mixing the little ball Ironhide had given him, Sunstreaker and Bluestreak moved to where Ironhide directed them. The blast that struck Mirage had went through his arm right near the shoulder joint. While he had some movement, Ironhide figured that Ratchet was going to have to replace the joint once they were back safe on base. For now, he cleaned what debris he could from the wound to prevent infection before applying the wound flex and cradling the arm against Mirage’s chest for both support and protection. 

“Your comms workin?” Ironhide asked as he cleaned and replaced the unused supplies back into the kit. Mirage shook his head. “Mine neither. Let’s rest up for a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t bring part of the surface down with that one.”

After getting the rest of the party situated, Ironhide took point, blaster at the ready. The others could catch some quick shut eye, he would stand watch and keep trying to ping the others for help. 

\--------------------------------------

While Jazz kept in contact with Blaster at the base regarding Decepticon locations, Nightshade provided the cover so Hound could do his tracking. Initial intel had reports of Megatron and the lead trine in this area but current information had indicated that once Prime arrived on the field, Megatron had taken off to confront him. Despite most of the fighting having moved on, it was still best to err on the side of caution, as you didn’t know if there could be individual or small groups of fighters in the area. They had a general idea of where the party was last tracked to by Ironhide and Mirage’s trackers but they lost their signal in this general vicinity. Soon they came to an area in the road where it looked like the tunnel had collapsed in on itself but no way to access it from topside. 

“There has to be some tunnel access points around here somewhere?” Nightshade said. “Split up and see if you can find anything.”

Both Jazz and Hound took off, Hound sticking close to the ground while Jazz climbed to the roof of a nearby building to see if he could get a better vantage from up high.

“Anything?” Hound asked as he looked for signs of a stairwell underground. 

“Go ‘bout ten clicks to your right,” Jazz replied. “There’s a lot a debris piled up but looks like there might be an openin there.”

Hound and Nightshade made their way over to where Jazz had directed them to find a stairwell to the maintenance tunnels underground. 

“I got a signal, faint but its Ironhide’s locator beacon.” Nightshade pulled his blaster from subspace as he put his scanner away and led the trio went down the stairs to find a collapsed area at the bottom. “Hound, can you find another way around this debris?”

The scout examined the battle field while taking in the environment around him. “There appears to be an access tunnel that should go around to the other side. Air flow isn’t blocked off so the collapse must not have closed it off. Ah, here it is.”

“Too small for us, Jazz, see if you can get to the other side, Hound and I will work on trying to clear some of this debris so we can get them back to base.”

Giving his boss and jaunty salute, Jazz scaled the wall, pried the vent cover off, and climbed inside the smaller tunnel. While it had taken some damage during the fighting, he was able to weave his way through with some careful maneuvering. 

Meanwhile, Ironhide had started to hear some noises on the other side of the debris wall. As he charged up his blaster, he noticed Sunstreaker had come alongside of him, eyes focused on the wall and an almost feral growl coming from his engine. While the yellow twin was always overly protective, he wondered if the fighting might have triggered some of the latent gladiator programming that they were unable to purge when they were pulled from the pits in Kaon. Something he would definitely need to speak with Ratchet about, if they ever made it back to base. 

“Mirage, you able to move?” He looked back to see the spy looked a little more coherent but still had a dull glow to his optics.

“If needs be, yes.”

“Be ready to retreat with the young ‘uns if I give you the order.” Ironhide snapped his gaze back towards the wall. Mirage started to argue but was quickly shut down. “No arguing, get the kiddos back to base. Find another one of the access stairwells and get out of here.”

“Don’t need to be doin that Hide.” 

Jazz’s voice came from a grate above their heads. With a quick move, he kicked the grate off and leapt to the floor with nary a sound. “Shade and Hound are workin on th’ other side tryin to clear the debris and get you out of here. Who’s responsible for this, ole Jackie would be proud.”

“That would be me and he should be proud, it was his grenades that caused it.” Jazz took a closer look at Mirage’s shoulder wound and noticed there was some light bleeding but nothing concerning at this point. However, the sooner they were back on base, the happier he would be.

“How bad?” Jazz removed the arm from the splint to apply some more pressure bandages over the original ones placed by Ironhide.

‘Took a blaster through the shoulder, got the worst of the bleeding stopped but Ratch will be fragged off at the amount of damage.” Ironhide had moved over to wall to start moving some of the rubble out of the way since he knew there was help trying to reach them on the other side. 

Jazz walked over, giving Sunstreaker a reassuring pat on the head and receiving a growl in return. He glanced at Ironhide and then made his way over to the wall.

“Got em boss. Mirage is down but conscious. The younglings are a little scuffed but ok. Hide is working on clearing things on this end.” He tried to tap Ironhide into the conversation but both winced at the squeal of static.

“Comms busted, so’s Mirage. Reason why we ain’t been able to call for help.”

“Hide says their comms are down, how do you want to proceed?” After the some back and forth, Jazz stepped back from the debris. “Ok, I’m taking the bitlets through the tunnel I used and get them safety on the other side. Get back there and shield Mirage. Shade is going to use some controlled explosions to get an opening cleared out to get you two through. Lots of damage up top, can’t guarantee whether any other access points can be used. We know this one is good and we need to get them back ta base pronto.”

Ironhide turned to see the younglings had heard what the plan was. He went to turn to get them ready when Jazz caught his arm.

“What’s up with Sunny, ain’t’ seen him that vicious since we pulled them from the pit.”

“Not sure Jazz, gonna have Ratch take a look at him once we get them home. Little slagger drove a piece of rebar through ole Bucket Head’s arm. Growled at him too. I know Perceptor said they couldn’t get rid of all of the gladiator programming but shouldn’t be this active.”

Jazz nodded his head and then took a running leap towards the vent tunnel opening. He anchored himself into the wall and then helped Ironhide with the younglings. Making sure that they had a good start, Jazz crawled in after them.

“See ya on the flip side,” he grinned and then quickly followed after his charges.

“Come on Mirage, I trust Nightshade but Primus knows if he’s using any of Wheeljack’s toys to get us out.” He pulled the mech to his feet and pulled his uninjured arm around him for extra support. They went a little further down the tunnel, found another little alcove and took shelter there. 

It took a couple of small blasts but soon there was some light shining through at the top of the debris pile. Hound flashed his search light through the opening. “Come on mechs, not going to hold forever!”

Ironhide picked up Mirage, cradling him against his body, and then sprinted towards the opening. He raised Mirage up through the opening where hands waited to grab onto him and pull him through. Once Mirage’s legs had cleared, Ironhide climbed towards the opening, grabbing onto Hound’s proffered hand and wiggled his way through the opening. It was a tight fight and the debris started to shift under his bulk. 

“Come on!” Nightshade grabbed his other arm and on the count of three, both were able to pull Ironhide through before the pile collapsed in on itself once more. 

Releasing a big ex-vent, Ironhide collapsed onto the ground and soon found his lap full of grateful younglings. “So what’s the plan?”

“Communications from Blaster indicate Prime is engaging Megatron at this moment and not too far from here.” Nightshade turned towards the others in his rescue party. “Hound, help Mirage. Jazz, take the younglings. I’ll take lead if you can take read guard Hide. No sneaking around, we’re taking the direct route back to base.”

Hound went over to help support Mirage as they walked while Jazz had Sideswipe climb onto his back and secured him with some magnets. Bluestreak stayed near his side, door wings quivering while Sunstreaker dug around the prior fighting ground, as though he was looking for something. 

“Let’s go Sunny!” Ironhide yelled as he charged his cannons, letting the others take the lead.

“Just wanted to grab this.” The yellow twin came back towards the group, only this time, he was carrying a large knife. One of the Decepticons must have dropped it during the prior fight. Nightshade glanced at Sunstreaker, then at Ironhide before nodding his head and leading the party out from the underground. They had several miles to cover to get back to base and with fighting going on around them, the sooner they left, the better. 

\--------------------------------------

“Just got the low down from Nightshade, all five have been found and they’re headin back to base.” Blaster turned around in his chair to give a reassuring smile to Prowl and Smokescreen before turning back around to his station and controlling the comms hub once more.

“Prime’s not too far away, they just got to make it to him and they’ll be ok.” Smokescreen gave his cousin a reassuring squeeze of his shoulder. Prowl nodded his head. Soon, he hoped, this particular nightmare would be over.

\-----------------------------------------------

The party was making good time, well, as good of time as expected with one wounded mech, one healing youngling, and two other younglings in tow. Unfortunately, the closer they got to the base, the more the fighting increased. They found themselves cutting through alleys and side streets to avoid the worst of it but soon found themselves near the old Senate compound where Optimus Prime and several of his warriors were fighting against Megatron and his lead trine. 

Nightshade and Ironhide tried to get them to cover as quickly as possible but not before they were spotted by the Decepticon leader himself. With a quick motion, he aimed his cannon towards the group and fired.

“SCATTER!” Nightshade had just enough time to call out a warning before the blast hit. While they avoided the blast, they were now scattered across the battlefield. Jazz was still with Sideswipe and managed to pull Hound and Mirage to cover with him. Sunstreaker and Bluestreak were crouched down behind some debris from what had once been the entry way arches, while he and Ironhide were now on either flank.

“It seems we have some company Prime,” Megatron leered as he kept his aim towards the new arrivals. Optimus held up his arm to signal his solders not to fire.

“This is between us Megatron, leave them out of it,” he growled, flicking his axe down into an attack position.

“And deny myself the vision of you being destroyed by their deaths, oh no Prime, I can’t do that.”

With a flick of his wrist, the trine focused their firing on the new arrivals and to keep Prime’s back-up from reaching them. A steady stream of fire was maintained between both sides, with Bluestreak and Sunstreaker trapped in the middle. Suddenly, Thundercracker released one of his sonic booms, knocking both Jazz and Hound to the ground. There was a skittering noise as Hound’s blaster was flung across the ground, skidding to a stop against Bluestreak’s legs. Another sonic blast took out Nightshade and several of Optimus’s back-ups while Ironhide was flung backwards and landed on a lower level from the fighting. While not knocked unconscious, he was dazed by the fall and was having problems focusing his optics on what was going on around him.

“Well, well, well, seems like Prime’s walking cannon is all bark and no bite.” Starscream made his way across the ground towards the drop off that Ironhide fell from. “Seems that I owe you for earlier today.”

Meanwhile, Megaton had gotten the upper hand against Optimus with an underhanded move (or two) and now had his cannon pointed towards the Autobot leader. 

“So Prime, it appears as if I now have the upper hand. But first, before you die, I will give you the pleasure of watching those who you care about most become one with the well before you join them.”

Starscream neared the edge of the grounds. He leered as he readied himself to jump into the air. He planned on taking down the Autobot weapon’s master while he circled him from above. He would show him how a Seeker takes out an enemy, not on the ground but from the sky. However, as he made the jump into the air and readied his thrusters to give him enough lift to transform, he felt something latch onto his right leg.

“AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” He cast a glance at his right ped to see a smiling yellow youngling slice not only through his thruster cables but into the actual support structures themselves. He fell towards the ground, partially due to the loss of his thrusters and partially from the shock of the injury. By the time he crashed to the ground, Sunstreaker had leapt off the Seeker and had landed, rolling to his knees with knife ready.

Caught off guard by the scream of his SIC, Megatron turned his attention away from Optimus and his charged cannon for just a moment. However, a moment was all it took for a shot to ring out, striking the power core for the cannon and causing it to explode, sending shrapnel into Megatron’s arm, chest, and face. Skywarp ran towards their leader while Thundercracker went to assist Starscream.

“Decepticons, Retreat!”

Both Megatron and Starscream were assisted airborne by the other two trine members. Optimus ordered his fighters to hold their fire as the Decepticons retreated from the battlefield. Glancing over, he saw Bluestreak aiming Hound’s blaster over the top of the debris they were hiding behind. Seeing as it was safe to do so, he unshouldered the gun and activated the safety.

Optimus sighed in relief. While the destruction of Iacon was immense and casualties undoubtedly high, the orn could have been so much worse. He could hear Ironhide swearing from where he had landed and Jazz, cradling Sideswipe, had made it to the other two younglings, checking them over to make sure they were ok.

“Autobots, let’s go home.”

\-------------------------------------

It had taken the rest of the orn and most of the overnight cycle before Med Bay calmed enough that Ratchet could go check on his charges. Prowl had come down immediately once he had been commed that Bluestreak was back on base and had been cleared from Med Bay. He immediately took his younger brother back to their shared quarters with Smokescreen, and from Jazz’s reports, were currently in a Praxian cuddle pile on the floor in recharge.

Sideswipe was sharing a room with Mirage. While additional treatment would be needed for the noble’s injuries, they were not deemed critical at this moment and he was currently hooked up to an IV feeding him nutrients and pain medications to keep him stable and comfortable. Unless more fighting broke out, which was unlikely in the near future due to both Megatron and Starscream being injured, he hoped to start work on Mirage’s shoulder later the following Orn. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, meanwhile, were curled up on the other berth in recharge. Both had come out of the experience fairly unscathed, at least physically. Ironhide sat in the chair next to them, optics half shuttered as he kept watch over his charges.

“Ratch, we need to talk.”

Ratchet was unaware the Ironhide had even noticed he walked in the room. “Here or somewhere else?”

“Somewhere else.” Ironhide grunted, slowly rising from his chair due to recent repair work and still sore welds. 

Moving out into the hallway and shutting the door behind them, Ratchet turned and faced Ironhide who was leaning against the wall.

“How much of the gladiator programming was left?

This was definitely not a question Ratchet was ready for. He had heard that Sunstreaker had gotten involved in the fighting (which he was none too pleased about) but hadn’t heard specifics due to how busy he had been. “Why?”

“Sunny, he, well, he wasn’t Sunny out there. At least not the Sunny we know.” Seeing Ratchet’s confusion, Ironhide continued. “Do you know he attacked Megatron directly? Jumped right on his arm and drove a piece of rebar through it. He also jumped on Starscream when he went to take me out, cut through his thruster cables without a second thought. And when we were trapped underground, he kept growling. Growled at Jazz before he calmed down.”

Ratchet’s optics were wide open. “What about the shot that blew up Megatron’s cannon? Did he do that too?”

“Nah, that was little Bluestreak. Little sniper that Praxian is.”

Now his jaw matched his optics. He sputtered for a moment before catching his composure.

“I know Perceptor said some of the programming was too far ingrained for it to be removed safely. Twins can naturally be protective of each other due to their special bond. With Sunny being the oldest, he would have this trait to a stronger extent that Sides. Perhaps with the combination of this and the programming, it makes him more aggressive. Something we will definitely need to speak more about with Perceptor. So what do we do in the meantime?”

“Little hellion showed he can fight, I think it’s time we show him the right way to fight. If anything, it might help channel this aggression. Sides too, once you give him the all clear. Might keep him out of trouble.”

Hearing some noises from inside the room, they both glanced through the window to see the twins start to fuss as they came out of recharge. 

“Go back in there with them,” Ratchet said as he turned to walk back into the Med Bay proper. “I’ll send a message to Percy and we’ll see if we can figure this out once things settle down some.”

\------------------------------------

Megatron was quite displeased. Not only had his attack on Iacon failed, he had been defeated, by younglings no less. Hook had managed to remove the worst of the shrapnel from his exploding cannon. However, he was going to require some neural relay replacements and other repairs before he would be fighting again.

He raised his head as he heard the door open and Soundwave walk in.

“So, did you get it?”

Without a sound, the TIC pulled up a file on the main computer console showing various footage and information that his cassettes had managed to pull from the Autobot mainframe before being detected by Red Alert. The images showed several different scenes of the twins as well as some file information showing they were rescued from Kaon before being placed in Ironhide and Ratchet’s care.

“Well, it seems we have finally found my missing twins.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I managed to get most of the type-o's, I had some "Help" typing from some 4 month old kittens....


	11. Cause and Effect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bots try to figure out why the twins can be aggressive and what to do about it

“So Perceptor, what have you been able to figure out?”

The scientist was currently in the conference room with Optimus, Nightshade, Ironhide, and Ratchet. Wheeljack was watching the Twins and Bluestreak since Prowl and Jazz were on duty.

“Well, there is still some gladiator coding present in both twins as you were already aware. The programming shows somewhat more active in Sunstreaker’s programming but is not at a level of primary importance, more of a background code.” He shuffled some papers to pull up Sideswipe’s results. “Sideswipe shows the same, the coding appears to be running in the background but his is not as noticeable as his brother’s. As to why this is, I have no idea.”

“Is there any way to safely remove the coding or make it less active?” Nightshade asked.

“At this time, it appears not. The coding is too ingrained. This could be the result of them already having some coding for aggressiveness from their carrier and sire and the gladiator coding found a more welcome environment or if could be a result of their split spark. Even with additional studies, we might never be able to determine the cause for the coding behaving the way it does.”

Ironhide sighed as he sat his datapad down. “And since we don’t have any idea where they came from, the odds of finding their creators…”

“Is slim to none,” Ratchet finished.

“So what do we do in the meantime?” Optimus asked. “We’ve already seen what Sunstreaker can do despite being a youngling. One would assume Sideswipe would have similar skills if pressed.”

“I would recommend finding ways for them to channel the aggression,” Perceptor replied. “Whether it be through sparring, activities, even meditation. They will have to deal with this the rest of their lives. The sooner they can get a handle on this coding, the easier it will be to control it as they mature.”

“I guess I just don’t understand why it’s started to show itself now?

“I think I do Hide,” Ratchet said. “They’ve always been fairly competitive but they’ve always had an outlet, at least until recently. They had their pranks, they spent a lot of time at the shooting range, they’ve been able to run around like younglings. Then we had to move underground and they were limited in what they could do. Then Sides got hurt. Then you add in the stress of the tunnel attack. The twin bond was always there; I just think they never realized what it was or how it worked. Some of Sideswipe’s frustrations had to be feeding through to Sunny. Throw in the natural protectiveness twins have for each other and he was just waiting to go off. I’m just glad he didn’t get hurt when he did.”

“Alright, let’s come up with a plan to help channel some of the twins’ energy.” Optimus turned towards Ratchet. “How much longer will he be in the brace?”

“I would estimate maybe another decaorn or 2, then we can slowly increase his activity levels.”

“Ironhide, work on getting the twins into a training program. Also speak with Prowl and Jazz. Both have training in cyber-ninjitsu and may be willing to help with meditation and other techniques. Perceptor, thank you for your report.”

The science bot nodded his head at the Prime and gathered up his materials as the meeting came to an end. It was time to start helping the twins control the programming that the Decepticons forced on them at too young an age.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short one. Been really fighting this one, I know where I want it to go but its fighting me on getting there. The brain wants to be like "I'm skipping point B and we're just jumping ahead to point C". Nope, sorry brain, doesn't work that way. Of course, been fighting a cold so that doesn't help matters either.
> 
> Oh well, hope it was ok :)


	12. Going Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins return "home"

It had been almost a vorn since the tunnel attacks and the Autobots started to find ways to deal with the twins’ aggressiveness. Sideswipe had finally had his brace removed and both twins had started training programs to help divert some of their additional energy and to give them an outlet for their aggression. They had also learned more about the twin bond, such as how it worked and what sensations and thoughts could be passed back and forth. Eventually, the twins got to the point they were able to coordinate moves by using their bond, not only making it hard for their sparring partners to figure out what they were going to do, but they were also able to coordinate better attacks during the inevitable prank wars that occurred during lulls in the fighting. Jazz was overly pleased with the abilities of his new partners in crime. 

In the meantime, not only had Decepticon attacks on Iacon increased, there had also been several attempted security breaches by Soundwave’s symbiotes that were stopped by Red Alert and his numerous security programs. Each time, it appeared they had been trying to access information regarding the twins and eventually, their files had to be placed under the strictest of clearance to where only limited individuals had access to their information. 

With the additional fighting that had been occurring, Bluestreak had been spending more time with the twins and their guardians due to Prowl and Smokescreen having to spend more time in Tactics. The younglings enjoyed being able to spend more time together and many nights, either Ratchet or Ironhide would return to their quarters to find all three curled up into a pile fast asleep. 

Eventually, the fighting reached a point where many of the non-combatants in Iacon were forced to flee to neutral camps or, if they had the means, off world where they hoped to escape the fighting. 

“Intel is suggesting that Kaon has been able to increase its support of fighters and supplies to Darkmount,” Nightshade explained. “While the rings haven’t been restarted, they’ve been using the sites as places where they can train new recruits before sending them on.”

“Then I think we need to take the fight to Kaon and we keep takin’ it to Kaon until they get the fragging idea!” Ironhide hit the table with his fist for emphasis. 

Optimus looked towards Prowl. “What has Tactics been able to determine?”

“We’ve been going over the intel provided by Ops and currently, the best options have involved multi-pronged assaults on various targets throughout the city.” He activated the holo-map and pointed to several locations that had been highlighted. “Findings show that these areas are the main bases to route supplies and troops from the area to wherever Megatron wishes them to go.”

“But they look like nothin’ more than warehouses.”

“Exactly, they are less obvious than an actual military compound and much easier to move when needed. Hence, why any assaults would need to be coordinated to occur at the same time to prevent one from assisting the other. While it might not destroy the Decepticon presence in Kaon, it will severely damage their ability to assist in a substantial way for several vorns.”

“Well, that’s all fine and dandy,” Ratchet said as his fingers drummed the table, “but what are we going to do about the kids. I’m not keen on keeping them here without us being around to protect them with Megatron showing such interest in them. However, taking them back to the cesspit we pulled them from isn’t exactly a grand idea either.”

The officers all looked at each other in silence for several breems before Optimus finally turned towards Ratchet and Ironhide.

“While there are pros and cons regarding whether the twins come with us or whether they stay here, ultimately, as their guardians, the decision must come down to you.”

********************

“Argh! We finally get out of the base and we’re stuck here!”

Sideswipe paced back and forth in their allotted quarters in the transporters while Sunstreaker sat on his berth and sketched. Ironhide and Ratchet had determined that it would be safer for the twins to stay with them and had worked with Red Alert to come up with safeguards for the twins while they were encamped outside of Kaon’s city walls. Since both Prowl and Smokescreen were here as part of the assault team as well, Bluestreak had tagged along and was also to reside with the twins. However, he currently was spending time with his brother before they would go into lockdown before the intended assault. Prior to leaving Iacon, both had received stern lectures from Ironhide and Ratchet regarding the seriousness of the situation. While his brother’s pacing was annoying, Sunstreaker knew it was just his way of trying to hide is anxiousness at being so close to Kaon again. Before long, Bluestreak came back to their space and the trio decided to settle down for the night. They knew that the Autobots planned to start the assaults come dawn and they might as well get some rest while they could.

While the twins and Bluestreak were in recharge, the assault teams began their preparations. It was to be a three-pronged assault with teams led by Jazz, Ironhide, and Nightshade. Prowl would be running Tactics with support from Smokescreen and Trailbreaker in the field. Ratchet would have the field hospital ready for incoming wounded. Optimus would oversee the entire command from the camp. At dawn, the strike teams left camp and made their way into Kaon, using back entrances into the city that had been scouted by Ops leading up to the assault. The Decepticon leaders in the city knew the Autobots were there and prepared accordingly for a siege, allowing the strike teams more time to reach their targets and prepare for attack. However, what the Autobots didn’t know was that Kaon was able to get a message out to Darkmount before communications went down. 

“Prowl, we’ve got a problem!”

Prowl turned his focus away from the Tactical Board to answer Smokescreen’s com.

“What is it Smokescreen?”

“Scouts reporting that Megatron and his primary trine will be here in less than ½ a joor. They also indicate that a raiding party is following close behind. We need to get everyone in shelter now!”

The information was relayed to Optimus who made the decision to move the camp into the city walls where they could combine forces with the strike teams and have better defensive positioning. A communique was also sent to Ultra Magnus to move in with the reserve lines to better bolster the Autobot troops against the incoming Decepticons.

“Jazz, objective had changed. Destroy target and rendezvous with us at the new encampment,” Prowl ordered as he sent a data burst with the coordinates where the Autobots would set up in order to more effectively hold off the incoming Decepticon party. 

It was only a few breems later when a large explosion shook the area with mutterings of “Wheeljack Special” passing through the ranks as they moved out. 

Operations had made good time loading up equipment and moving it into the city walls. Once inside, they would meet up with the strike teams and move en masse to their new headquarters. Suddenly, a Decepticon strike team emerged from the alley ways and began to attack. The twins and Bluestreak were near the middle of the caravan, not too far from Ratchet, when several grenades were thrown their way, resulting in the party being split apart. While the soldiers formed up lines to better protect the other mechs and to start a counter attack, the younglings were forced away from the group and into hiding in a nearby building.

“What do we do?” Bluestreak peered out the window to see active fighting going on outside. While technically not behind enemy lines, they were unable to make it to the Autobot lines without being caught in the open. If they made a run for it, they would be easy targets for the Decepticons to take out. Bluestreak was becoming more nervous as the fighting got closer to their hiding spot and peered over at the twins when he heard a growling noise. He noticed Sideswipe’s engine was growling aggressively with faint tremors going through his body. Sunstreaker, in contrast, was quiet and still but his eyes were becoming darker, almost purple as he watched the fighting outside. 

“Um, guys,” Bluestreak squeaked when both twins snapped their heads towards him, eyes narrowed and dentals bared. “We need to get out of here. But where do we go? We can’t get run out there or the Decepticons will get us but we can’t stay here because they’re getting closer and Megatron is on his way and I really don’t want to run into him again because he was scary the last time and I’m sure he’s still just as scary.”

Being in hyper states of awareness thanks to their residual gladiator programming, not only did the twins notice Bluestreak’s nervous rambling but his increasing spark rate and faint wing tremors as well. They were also able to pick up faint changes in the environment indicating that more fighting would be coming their way. Communicating quickly over their bond, Sunstreaker took off for the back entry way while Sideswipe grabbed Bluestreak’s arm and quickly followed. They made their way into the alley behind the store and away from their fighting, taking shelter when the twins picked up someone heading their way or changing directions when they felt the fighting got too close. Bluestreak was starting to think they were going around in circles but whenever he tried to communicate with the twins, all he got were growls and glares in return and a quickening of pace. Finally, it seemed like the sounds of battle were behind them but the twins didn’t slow down. They almost seemed driven in where they were going. Finally, the twins slowed down and came to a stop, quietly looking around and taking in the environment around them. Bluestreak was bent over, hands on his knees trying to slow his ventilations after being drug half-way across Kaon to pit knows where. However, when he looked up, he realized they were in the pit for rising above the trio were the ruins of a gladiator arena.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to update. Been fighting a stupid chest cold from hell and the beginning of this chapter was fighting me like hell. Not overly proud but it was driving me nuts. Plus, part 2 is wanting to be put down on paper so had to go with the lesser of two evils :/


	13. Embracing History

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle for Kaon continues and the twins find themselves in a familiar place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another long one, they seem to come in spurts

Fighting had been going on for several joors with neither Decepticon or Autobot giving way along the frontlines. In some places, the Autobots were able to get a better foothold while in others, it was the Decepticons. However, neither really lost or gain ground overall. Strike groups were sent out by both sides to try and get an advantage but were quickly countered. Casualties were quickly mounting and Ratchet found himself doing surgery in the back alleys of Kaon while the Autobots worked on maintaining a protective ring around his designated medical areas. Every now and then, Ironhide or Optimus would come back to check on the status of the wounded before heading back out to the fighting. However, there was another reason for the frequent checking. The twins and Bluestreak were noted to be missing and hadn’t been located in the immediate area trying to find shelter. Attempts were being made to contact Jazz to go on recon to try and locate them but communications were coming and going as both Blaster and Soundwave fought for control of the airwaves. Finally, someone was able to relay a message to Jazz who reported back to the main staging area to find out what was going on. After learning the younglings had been missing for at least several joors, he grabbed Mirage and they both made their way around the fighting into the less occupied parts of Kaon to try and find them before they were hurt or worse.

Meanwhile, after wandering the old gladiator pit for a while, the trio finally found a place where they could crawl into and hide for some rest. While Bluestreak quickly collapsed due to exhaustion, the twins were slower to fall into recharge. Finally, Sideswipe’s systems gave out and he fell into recharge while Sunstreaker entered into a state of light relaxation. The gladiator programming wasn’t running dominant at the moment but he was still alert enough to focus on any noise to determine if it was a threat. As the cannons rumbled in the background, he settled in for watch, ready to act when the need arose.

************************

Jazz and Mirage had been searching for over a joor without success. Kaon was a large city with lots of back alleys and crumbling structures which meant plenty of places a trio of scared younglings could hide.

“I don’t care what Ratch has to say, we are findin a way to get those kids some comms and locators after this,” Jazz said as he took a seat on a nearby dumpster so he could pull up a map of the area while Mirage kept look-out. 

‘Well, the twins did grow up in this area from what I understand,” Mirage replied. “Did they ever mention anything specific, such as places they remembered going?”

“Nah, never mentioned anythin. Sounded like they weren’t too fond of the place. Can’t blame them with their past. Between being abandoned and then sold..to….the……rings………..”

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I jus’ figured out where they might be headin to.” Jazz focused in part of the map to bring up some fighting rings and tracks located near the center of Kaon. “We found them in this cesspit over a vorn ago and we know that the gladiator coding kicks in some when they’re stressed, at least it does for Sunny. Sides too to some extent I guess. I guess if I was scared and runnin on base programming, I’d head towards where it was tellin meh.”

“And for gladiators, it was always back to their ring.” Mirage came over to look at the map. “Which arena did you find them in?”

“This un” Jazz pointed to a spot a few leagues away from their current position. “Ole Hide was fairly destructive after the raid but there is enough of the ruins standin for them to find shelter in, both above and below ground.”

Sending a quick message to Prowl to let him know where they were heading off to check the pits where the twins were originally found, the duo readied their weapons and headed off around the fighting to the old arena district.

********************

Bluestreak was startled awake by a hand being pressed over his mouth. Onlining his optics, he looked into Sideswipe’s face who used his free hand to put his free hand in front of his mouth in a shushing manner. Both turned their heads towards Sunstreaker who was looking out over the arena.

“What’s going on?” he mouthed once he saw Sunstreaker’s attention turned back towards them.

Not saying a word but his optics starting to take that strange purplish tint again, Sunstreaker pointed down towards the arena floor. Megatron was pacing the floor while being watched by his SIC Starscream and TIC Soundwave. 

“Scouts are reporting that the Autobots are starting to encroach along the left flank, my Lord,” Starscream reported.

“Soundwave, do we have the mech-power to send reinforcements to that area?”

“Negative Lord Megatron,” the TIC replied in a monotone voice. “Casualties: heavy. Reinforcements: spread thin.”

The twins and Bluestreak had heard rumors about the Decepticon’s TIC, most notably that he was a telepath. No one had ever said for certain that he was and they didn’t care to stay around long enough to find out. Sunstreaker slowly motioned them to head towards the other end of the tunnel they had crawled into so they could possibly try and find another place to hide until the Autobots found them. Turning to follow, he knocked a small piece of rubble out of their hiding spot and it fell down into the crumbled stands below. While Megatron and Starscream argued over their next course of action, the sound, although minute, caught the TIC’s attention.

“Soundwave?” 

He turned towards Megatron who had stopped mid-argument when he saw his TIC stiffen in reaction to something. He pointed up into the stands where the younglings had been hiding. “Overhead: we are not alone.”

“Well then, I think we need to see what kind of rodents still exist in these ruins and exterminate them if they are of Autobot origin.”

Motioning towards his officers, the trio split up to try and find out who had been spying on their conversation, the twins and Bluestreak unaware that they were being actively hunted.

************************

The youngling were not the only ones who had witnessed the Decepticon command taking shelter in the old ruins. Using his cloak, Mirage had been creeping around the lower levels of the ruins to try and find any signs of the missing younglings while Jazz searched the upper regions. Rounding a corner to see the Decepticon command half a ring floor away from him, he crouched down in silence to listen. Upon seeing they were splitting up and that they were searching for someone, he activated a low frequency ops link that was hard to detect.

“Come in Jazz.”

“Sup Raj.”

“I just ran into Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave. They heard something in the ruins and are investigating. It’s possible the twins and Bluestreak are hiding here. Be on look out.”

“No problem, sending a quick ping to Prowl and on my way. Let’s get to the kiddos before they do. Make your way up to the seating areas, you’ll be able to hide better with your cloak. I’ll make my way below.”

Sending an acknowledgement, Mirage made his way across the arena floor and used some of the surrounding debris to make his way into the stands. Starscream was currently making his way through the uppermost seating so he decided to stick to the middle area of the arena for the time being, hoping the younglings would be hidden in the more accessible portion of the ruins.

************************

Bluestreak was gripping Sideswipe’s upper arm as they made their way through the vendor tunnels in an attempt to stay away from the searching Decepticons. These tunnels were a lesser known part of the arena, used by vendors to make their way back and forth from the seats to the kitchens where they could collect their wares for selling to the crowds gathered to watch the fights. There were few outside of the ring workers and residents who knew of their existence and the twins figured they would be an excellent means of moving around for the time being. They had been traveling for less than one-half of a joor when their luck ran out. 

“Well, what do we have here, little gladiator mice who have returned to their den.”

The trio turned around to see Megatron standing at the end of the hallway and slowly making his way towards them. Bluestreak squeaked as he hid behind Sideswipe who was being blocked from view by Sunstreaker. The twins flinched as the former gladiator stalked his way towards them. Communicating over their bond, the twins formulated a plan that they hoped would help them get away.

“I’m sure Prime will be quite upset knowing that his precious younglings are in Decepticon custody.” 

“Ha, gotta catch us first,” Sideswipe spoke up catching the Decepticon leader off guard.

Suddenly, the twins split up, Sunstreaker darting into a tunnel off to the side while Sideswipe grabbed Bluestreak’s hand and took off down a small access tunnel heading in the opposite direction. Knowing he would not be able to fit in either passage and not wanting to use his fusion cannon in the ruins, Megatron pulled a pistol from subspace and pointed it in the direction that Sideswipe and Bluestreak fled and fired a shot. He then continued down the hallway, hoping to intersect with Sunstreaker when he made his way of out of his access tunnel.

Sideswipe and Bluestreak could hear the wine as the pistol charged and felt a jolt through the floor from the shot’s impact. Suddenly there was some shaking and rumbling as the floor started to give way underneath their feet.

“RUN!” Sideswipe yelled as he yanked on Bluestreak’s arm to get him to move faster. They could see light from the end of the tunnel but Sideswipe knew they wouldn’t make it on time, at least both of them. Giving Bluestreak’s arm a yank, he flung him forwards towards the opening just as the floor gave way underneath him.

Landing hard on his wings, Bluestreak gave a sharp yell of pain before rolling over to look behind him.

“SIDES!!!!”

But all he could see was the darkness of the trench that stretched out in front of him.

*******************

Sunstreaker made his way slowly down the tunnel he was hiding in. He knew that Megatron would continue around to try and catch him at the other end so he had decided he would linger in the tunnel for a period of time before making his way back out the way he came in and across the way towards where his brother and Bluestreak had fled. Suddenly, he felt a stab of fear and then shockwaves of pain passing through his body. He grabbed his helm and opened his mouth in a silent scream. Then he felt nothing. 

And then he snapped.

******************

Mirage made his way around the arena is his cloak, picking up his pace when he heard shooting. He was making his way towards a corner when someone flew around it and ran into him. He was knocked to the ground and noticed it was Bluestreak. 

“Blue! It’s me!” Mirage dropped his cloak and tightly embraced the trembling youngling in an effort to get him to calm down.

Finally coming to his senses, Bluestreak started pushing himself away from Mirage. “Mirage! Sideswipe needs help! He fell and I can’t find him!”

Picking up his rifle that he had dropped in the collision, he grabbed Bluestreak’s hand and directed him to lead the way. Soon they came to the little access tunnel that Bluestreak and Sideswipe has used to flee from Megatron. 

“Megatron took a shot at us and Sideswipe fell down there,” Bluestreak pointed down into the gap that had formed when the floor collapsed. 

It was going to be a tight fight but Mirage’s frame was lithe enough he would be able to fit into the entry way. Pulling some cable from subspace, he anchored one end at the top of the gap while throwing the rest down the opening.

“Alright Blue, I’m going to go find him. I need you to climb on my back and hold on so my hands are free to rappel down. Can you do that for me?”

Nodding his head, he waited for Mirage to turn away from him so he could climb on. He wrapped his arms around Mirage’s neck and his legs around his waist.

“Hang on, I’m not sure how tight of a fit this is going to be.”

He could feel Bluestreak nod his head. He had noticed the youngling’s door wings off kilter when they had their collision so he knew Bluestreak was in some pain and wanted to try and avoid injuring him further on the climb down. Easing his way through the initial opening, they found that it opened into a large, open area that must have been used as training or recreational area by the former inhabitants. Switching his lights on so he could see, he saw the floor several lengths below him. Thankfully it wasn’t a large drop and they soon some saw red plating in a pile of rubble. Touching down, Mirage knelt so he could let Bluestreak climb off before they made their way over to the hopefully injured youngling.

“Sides?” Bluestreak knelt down and grabbed Sideswipe’s hand and gave a squeeze. He relaxed some when he got a squeeze in return.

“You ok Blue?” Dim blue optics focused on his friend in front of him. “Mirage?”

“Do you hurt anywhere?” Mirage knelt by the pile of rubble and started moving some of the chunks of stone and metal.

“Legs hurt.”

“Helm ache, feel nauseous or dizzy?”

“Not really. Just feel like the wind was knocked out of me.”

Finally clearing the rest of the rubble off of Sideswipe, Mirage got a better look at his injuries. There was some minor bleeding but since most of the energon looked to be dry, it appeared as if is self-repair was able to handle those injuries and were not a concern at this time. “Oh, that’s not good.”

“What?” Sideswipe raised himself to a reclined position with Bluestreak’s help and took a look at his lower body. “Oh frag my life,” he said as he lowered himself back down to the ground. Sideswipe had not broken his leg. He had in fact, broken both of his legs. 

“Jazz, I have Sideswipe and Bluestreak, however, both are injured.”

“Copy, can you stabilize?”

“I believe so”

“Alright, try and make your way outside of the arena. Prowl sent me a message, Prime and Ironhide are almost here with reinforcements. We’re to get the younglins and get out. I’ll keep lookin for Sunny”

Sending a confirmation ping before cutting the communication, Mirage turned to start working on applying splits to Sideswipe’s legs so they could evacuate the area as quickly as possible.

*********************

Pulling up to the exterior of the arena and transforming, Optimus and Ironhide started to assess the situation.

“So where are we gonna start Prime? Ratchet will have my hide if we don’t get those younglings back as soon as possible.”

“I’ve received word from Jazz that Mirage has Bluestreak and Sideswipe. They are injured but alert. Jazz is currently searching for Sunstreaker.”

Ironhide cycled his cannons and started to make his way into the ruined arena.

“Autobots, stay alert,” Prime said as he turned towards his team. “We know Megatron and his command officers are on-site and the others could be near-by."

***********************

Making his way towards the arena floor to try and locate the missing youngling, Jazz instead noticed that both Soundwave and Starscream were waiting in the middle of the ring while Megatron made his way over to his officers.

“Well, did you find anything?” Starscream huffed.

“It was those younglings staying with the Autobots,” Megatron replied. “Two of them have been dealt with but one is still on the loose.”

“Intruder: approaching”

Starscream started to retort but stopped when Soundwave spoke up and pointed across the arena. In an open doorway, a yellow youngling stood quietly, helm down towards the ground.

“Well, it appears he has come to us,” Megatron smiled and he turned to walk towards the missing youngling.

“Primus fraggit Sunny, get out of here!” Jazz muttered under his breath and he tried to maneuver quickly and quietly through the seating to try and intersect the warlord. “Prime, get to the arena now! Megatron’s going after Sunny!”

“Any last words?” Megatron asked as he started to raise his pistol.

Slowly, Sunstreaker raised his head so he could look up into the Decepticon leader’s face. However, before eye contact could be made, a shot rang out from across the arena, striking the pistol and knocking it out of Megatron’s hand.

“Take care of him!” Megatron ordered as he pointed towards Jazz. Hearing shooting in the background, he once again turned his focus back towards the yellow twin, stopping suddenly at the look he received.   
Bright red optics met his own with bared dentals and growling engine.

“You can die.”

Suddenly, Sunstreaker sprinted forwards, dodging Megatron’s swipe to try and knock him off his feet. Turning quickly, he leapt and scrambled up the warlord’s back, clawing and ripping tubes and wiring as he went. With a loud roar, Megatron tried reaching behind him but each time, Sunstreaker managed to stay just out of reach. Finally, he was able to grab a hold of Sunstreaker’s ankle and rip him off his back, yelling in pain as he did so, and fling him across the arena floor. Sunstreaker bounced and rolled several times before coming to a stop. Slowly he pushed himself to his feet, left arm dangling useless beside him and continued to glare. Once more, he sprinted forward, managing to claw into Megatron’s leg before he was once again grabbed and thrown across the arena. This was repeated several times, Megatron suffering various injuries over different parts of his body while Sunstreaker, too embroiled in the gladiator programming, continued to come at him, claws and teeth bared, despite his injuries. After the fifth attack had ended, Sunstreaker was slow to get up from the ground. His left arm was still useless and he had various dents, tears, and sparking wires all over his body.

“This ends here little warrior,” Megatron said as he charged his fusion cannon. “Such a pity, you would have made a fine Decepticon."

“SUNNY!”

A voice yelled from across the arena before Megatron could fire the fatal shot. Looking over, he could see Mirage with the other two younglings. With a smirk, he turned back towards Sunstreaker. However, he had delayed too long with his gloating, for this time, he was interrupted by another yell, one more primal and deeper before he was tackled but a large blue and red mech and knocked away from the injured twin.

“PRIME!”

Megatron forgot all about the injured yellow twin as he now turned his attention towards his nemesis. While they battled it out, Smokescreen was able to get to Sunstreaker and get him away from the fighting. Meanwhile, Hound, Prowl, and the others had started giving cover fire to Jazz, causing both Starscream and Soundwave to retreat from their positions and move back towards the arena floor where their leader and Optimus Prime were trading blows back and forth under Ironhide’s watchful optics. Swinging with his axe, Optimus was finally able to get through Megatron’s defenses and struck a blow deep in the warlord’s side. Stumbling back towards his command staff and seeing himself surrounded on all sides, Megatron saw no other option but to retreat.

“You win this round Prime but this war is not over!” Megatron yelled as both Starscream and Soundwave assisted him into flight and they quickly made their way out of the arena. 

Subspacing and cycling down their weapons, Ironhide and Optimus made their way over to where Smokescreen was huddling with Sunstreaker.

“How is he Smokey?” Ironhide asked as he knelt down towards his ward.

“He’s hurt bad Hide, we need to get him back to Ratchet right away.

“Sideswipe and Bluestreak also require medical attention,” Mirage spoke up. 

“Ironhide, can you transform and transport the younglings back to base?” Prime asked as he continued to watch Smokescreen perform basic first aid to stop the worst of the bleeding.

With a nod, Ironhide transformed and opened his back hatch. Mirage turned his back towards Optimus, who removed Sideswipe from his back and gently placed him inside Ironhide’s hold. Prowl followed next with Bluestreak, who crawled in the back by Sideswipe. Finally, Smokescreen carried over Sunstreaker and laid him gently in the back, Bluestreak placing his helm in his lap while Sideswipe grabbed a hold of his hand. After closing the hatch, Optimus went to transform when a comm came through.

“Optimus, it’s Nightshade. Scouts report that the Decepticons are retreating. I’ve posted sentries in various parts of the city but for now, Kaon is ours.”

“Thank you Nightshade, please inform Ratchet we have recovered the younglings and are on our way back. They will require urgent medical treatment and to have triage teams ready. Sunstreaker is most critical. Sideswipe and Bluestreak are stable at this time.”

“Copy that, we’ll see you back on base.”

Turning towards his troops, “Autobots, let’s go home.”


	14. Leave the Past Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is back in Iacon not not everything is ok

Shortly after arriving back at camp, Ratchet took charge of the injured younglings and performed some basic first aid in order to stabilize them before transporting back to Iacon. While Sideswipe’s and Bluestreak’s injuries were relatively minor, he was concerned about Sunstreaker’s condition. He had multiple injuries to his frame and components and still had not regained consciousness by the time they were loaded onto an emergency transport back to Iacon with the other seriously injured. After several joors of surgery, Ratchet was finally secure in the knowledge that Sunstreaker was going to be ok. It would take some time for his injuries to heal completely but he should suffer no long-term effects from his injury. At least physically. Mentally, he still wasn’t sure. He had Perceptor go through Sunstreaker’s processor to see if there were any residuals from the gladiator programming. His findings suggested that the programming was once again latent and appeared to have less of a presence in the background than it had in the past. However, there was no guarantee it couldn’t become active again in the right situation. 

Bluestreak and Sideswipe had both been cleared to leave the Med Bay and while Bluestreak went back to his quarters with Prowl and Smokescreen, Sideswipe wanted to stay near his brother. Plus, with Ratchet spending most of his time in Med-Bay and Ironhide still in Kaon, he just didn’t want to spend a lot of time in their rooms alone. 

Several orns after the battle, in the middle of the night cycle, Ironhide made his way down to the Med Bay. After being pointed in the right direction by one of Ratchet’s subordinates, he walked towards one of the private rooms in the back. Opening the door quietly, he slipped inside to see that Sideswipe’s berth had been pushed over by Sunstreaker so they could rest in close proximity while Ratchet sat near-by working on medical charts.

“So have you even had any recharge since you go back?” he asked as Ratchet looked up to see who had walked in the room.

“Here and there”, he replied as he sat the data pad he was working on down. 

“How they doin?” Ironhide gestured towards the twins as he took a seat on the opposite side of the berth.

“Considering everything, not bad,” Ratchet sighed. “Sideswipe is mad about being in a brace again but at least its only one leg and not both. The other fracture was a clean break and easily repaired. Sunny’s going to be sore for a few days but will be fine.”

“And the programming?”

“Perceptor says its latent again, not as prevalent but still there.” Ratchet got up to send a command for all of the occupied berths to take a new set of vitals on the occupant and upload to the associated file before grabbing a couple of cubes and sitting back down by Ironhide. “I really don’t know what to do. Until Sunny wakes up and we can get some more information from him, I just don’t know how to proceed. It was bad earlier though, Sides kept trying to connect using the bond but it was like Sunny was just fighting him off. Poor kid almost went into a panic attack before things settled.”

“Get some rest Ratch, Prime wants to have a full command meeting sometime tomorrow to go over everything in Kaon and you can’t be conking out on the table.”

Ratchet went to argue but knew he would lose when he saw the glare Ironhide was throwing him. He sent a message to the medics indicating his status and to get him in case of emergency before finally letting his systems relax.

The following morning was spent mostly in meetings. Prowl had dropped by with Bluestreak for a check to make sure his doorwings were healing well and Jazz came to visit with Sideswipe and keep him occupied. Sunstreaker was restless for most of the day, indicating that he would soon regain consciousness. Jazz was sitting in the corner of the room teaching Sideswipe different card tricks when his sensors showed the Sunstreaker was waking up. He sent a ping to Ratchet and then picked up Sideswipe to carry him over to his twin’s side. Not long after they reached his side, Sunstreaker’s optics slowly lit up.

“Hey Sunny.” 

Ratchet opened the door to see the yellow twin smile weakly up at his brother, who returned the greeting, but had a troubled look on his face.

“Sunny, what’s wrong?”

Sunstreaker couldn’t look his brother in the face and Sideswipe could feel the turmoil roiling around in his spark. He reached out to grab his twin’s arm but all Sunstreaker did in return was jerk his arm and gasp under his breath.

“Jazz, can you take Sideswipe out for just a moment?” Ratchet asked as he saw this interaction. Sideswipe was on the verge of tears and he wanted to avoid and emotional outbursts and backlashes if possible.

Nodding affirmatively, Jazz murmured something to Sideswipe before hiking him up higher on his hip and leaving the room. Once Ratchet was sure they were alone, he walked up to the berth.

“Sunny, what’s going on?”

“Nothin,” Sunstreaker murmured in return. He scratched around the IV line attached to his arm then turned on his side, rolling away from Ratchet.

“Oh no you little hellion, you aren’t getting out of this that easy.” Ratchet rolled him back over, keeping his hand on Sunstreaker’s shoulder, lightly applying enough force to keep him from rolling away again. “Now what’s going on?”

Sunstreaker chewed on his lower lip as he turned his helm away from Ratchet and muttered something. Unable to hear what was said, Ratchet prodded the yellow twin to repeat himself. 

“I said I thought he was dead!” Sunstreaker turned his helm back towards Ratchet, tears pooling in his optics.

Ratchet shifted Sunstreaker over a little so he could sit on the berth and then pulled the yellow twin into his lap where he curled up into an abject ball of misery.

“Why did you think that Sunny?”

“I couldn’t feel him anymore and that’s not happened since the bond opened up,” Sunstreaker hiccupped. “I just got mad, I didn’t want to lose him.”

Rocking Sunstreaker back and forth, Ratchet murmured words of comfort while rubbing his free hand up and down the youngling’s back plates. Eventually, the hitched venting smoothed out.

“Why did that happen Ratchet? Why did I think Sides was dead?”

“I don’t know sweetspark. So little is known about split-spark twins and their bonds. Maybe the shock of the fall did something to Sides’s end of the bond which did something to your connection. I really wish I knew.” Ratchet turned Sunstreaker’s face up towards him. “But I promise we’ll find out everything we can so this doesn’t happen again. OK?”.

Sunstreaker nodded his head before turning his helm back into Ratchet’s chest plates.

“Do you want to go see Sides? I’m sure he’s as upset about everything as you are.”

When Sunstreaker nodded his head again, Ratchet turned to switch off the IV pump and disconnected the line from his arm. He then picked up the yellow twin and walked towards the room where Jazz had indicated they were going. They walked inside to see Sideswipe curled up in Jazz’s lap, similar to how Sunstreaker was curled up in Ratchet’s not too long ago. Sideswipe turned his tear stained face towards his twin, who in return reached out for his brother. Only then did Ratchet know that they’d be ok. And starting tomorrow, he was going to search through every file and document and archive he could find so the younglings could learn to control their connection better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for delay and so short. Someone who shall remained unnamed was a genius and chipped a bone in her thumb so typing is not the most pleasant and cooperative experience at the moment.....


End file.
